Dr Michael Salmon: Woman 'drugged and gang-raped by three
doctors in hospital when she was 12-years-old'
The woman said she was assaulted by Salmon and colleagues in he early 1970s after being referred to him for migraines and stomach problems, a court hearing
A woman was gang-raped in a hospital by three senior doctors when she was just 12-years-old, a court has heard.
Dr Michael Salmon, 79, is accused of giving the victim a drink to make her woozy before taking her to a room at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
The woman told jurors at Reading Crown Court that once inside the room, Salmon and two other men took turns to rape her.
The witness, now 54, was giving evidence today at the trial of Salmon - who denies three rapes, 11 indecent assaults and two counts of using instruments to procure miscarriages.
She told the court how at the time, one of the doctors asked her to take her clothes off and lay on the bed before she was raped.
She said: "I just froze. I was threatened that if I told anyone, I would be in trouble and put in a home for naughty children by Mr B (an unidentified doctor)."
The woman was allegedly raped and indecently assaulted by former consultant paediatrician Salmon in the early 1970s, after she was referred to him with migraines and stomach problems.
The court heard she had been in and out of hospital since the age of five years because she was born with a condition called neurofibromatosis, which causes tumours.
She told jurors that during her time at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, she had also been assaulted by Jimmy Savile.
The court heard how the woman was introduced to Salmon by Dr B, a plastic surgeon who performed operations on her face, and was told to call him "Uncle Mike."
She claimed he used to give her 'bear hugs' and that he touched her private parts when he worked at the Royal Bucks Hospital in Aylesbury Bucks., when she started suffering from migraines and stomach problems.
The court heard he regularly began taking photographs of her for a book he told her he was compiling on her condition.
She recounted one incident when Salmon examined her when she was aged 12 years, while her mother was on the other side of the consulting room curtain.
She told the jury: "He asked me to take my dress off and lay on the couch. He started touching my stomach and then he started to go down towards the bottom part."
While she was staying overnight in Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Bucks., the witness told the court Salmon pulled the curtains around her bed and told her he wanted to examine her.
The witness said: "He lifted my nightdress up and started touching my stomach, then moved his hand down."
Miss Moore asked: "Did you complain?"
The witness replied: "No, I was too frightened to. I just accepted what was happening to me."
Defence lawyers argued that the witness was simply being examined by Salmon at the time, and mentioned how she had written a letter supporting him when he faced indecent assault allegations around 1990.
When asked why she only mentioned Dr B to her counsellor when she began sessions in 2000 and not Mr Salmon or Jimmy Savile, she replied: "It was only through the counselling process that I started to shift the layers back and reveal what had happened to me."
The court heard the witness first mentioned what Jimmy Savile had allegedly done to her in October 2012, when the scandal broke.
Miss Jones said: "Mr B was dead, Jimmy Savile was dead. Who were you now considering making a claim against?"
The witness replied: "I wasn't making a claim about anybody."
The hearing continues.
