Ex-GP did genital exams because he was ‘haunted’ by patient deaths, court hears

A former GP accused of conducting unnecessary genital examinations on nine male patients was “haunted” by earlier misdiagnoses, a court heard.

Gregory Manson, 56, is alleged to have carried out genital exams even when patients came to him with complaints of coughs, headaches, back pain and knee sprains.

His accusers said they do not recall him wearing gloves, offering a chaperone or giving “proper explanations” for the examinations before they took place.

All I can say is that there may have been times where I didn’t get it right. Maybe I assumed that people understood when they did not

On Monday, Manson told jurors at Canterbury Crown Court that his medical examinations were “not sexually motivated at all” and were instead based on ruling out rare diseases which he had misdiagnosed in the past.

He worked as a GP between 1994 and 2017, and also worked as a GP trainer, programme director of GP training and GP appraiser for the General Medical Council.

Manson, of Tower Way, Canterbury, denies 18 offences of sexual assault and six of indecent assault in respect of nine alleged victims, including two young teenagers.

Many of these examinations relate to what the former GP calls “well person checks” which were offered to new patients at the surgery he worked for, the court heard.

Giving evidence, Manson said: “Part of your work as a GP is disease prevention and health promotion, we do that all the time.

“You’re looking for any pathology or disease that may be asymptomatic that somebody is not necessarily aware of.”

Professor of Forensic Medicine and GP, Ian Wall was “surprised” that Manson considered testicular examination part of a new patient check during his review of Manson’s medical notes, jurors have heard.

Manson added: “When I worked in South Africa particularly in many hospitals that didn’t have facilities to further investigate things, your training was very much in examination and being thorough with examinations. An MRI was not available in Soweto.”

He told the court about his early work as a GP and why losing patients had made him conduct more “thorough” investigations.

The former GP said that every doctor remembered their “first death”, and his was a man who had arrived with what was initially thought to be a stomach ulcer but was in fact an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

In truth Dr Manson took frequent opportunities to examine patients’ genitals not because he needed to, but because he wanted to

“When you have experiences like this and you examine an abdomen you are haunted,” said Manson.

Pushed on how rare the diseases he was testing were, he said: “You never ever want to miss that and never ever want that to happen again.”

He added that a “comprehensive” abdominal exam would involve a genital exam.

One of Manson’s alleged victims claims the former GP pulled down their underwear without their consent.

Asked if he could think of any occasions when that happened, he said: “I can’t think exactly of any, if someone had indicated that they were happy to proceed, I would never do it without someone indicating that they were happy for that to proceed.

“I can’t remember each and every single examination that I ever did because I did so many. All I can say is that there may have been times where I didn’t get it right.

“Maybe I assumed that people understood when they did not.”

The prosecution earlier noted that “many examinations he performed were not medically justified” and that other GPs would not have carried them out.

“In truth Dr Manson took frequent opportunities to examine patients’ genitals not because he needed to, but because he wanted to,” said Jennifer Knight KC, prosecuting.

Asked his reasons for the exams, Manson said: “Not sexually motivated at all – the motivation each time is based on your clinical judgement at the time when dealing with the symptoms that a patient has before you.

The trial continues.