A doctor has been banned from practising for five years after breaching professional boundaries by sexually touching one of his patients and having sex with another while married.
West Gosford GP Fady Malak has lost his practitioner licence after the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found he had been inappropriate with three vulnerable patients.
The tribunal heard evidence that Malak had been convicted in 2021 after sexually touching a female patient during a consultation in October 2020.
The Erina doctor had rubbed the woman’s buttocks and kissed her neck before asking the upset woman: “Are you crying, sookie baby?”
He then continued to touch her inappropriately and told her that he had liked her for a long time during her appointment.
In 2021, Malak pleaded guilty in the Gosford Local Court to two counts of aggravated sexual touching of a person without consent.
He was later sentenced to a 14-month community corrections order by the Gosford Local Court in 2021.
Malak had also failed to keep adequate records of two consultations with the woman, as required by law.
The tribunal was also told Malak had an affair with a separate patient between 2019 and 2020.
Court documents stated Malak had conducted an internal vaginal examination of the woman before having sex with her during consultations on three occasions.
He had also sent her inappropriate messages and told her he loved her.
A third woman also reported Malak after he told her she was “very special” when he hugged her while she cried during a consultation, according to court documents.
Malak was not criminally charged in relation to the second and third women.
The tribunal found Malak was guilty of professional misconduct and posed a “substantial risk to the health of members of the public”.
The tribunal judgment stated Malak couldn’t be trusted not to act inappropriately and would need a “lengthy period to engage in meaningful reflection” by way of treatment or therapy to gain “genuine insight” into his inappropriate behaviour
Court documents stated Malak had told the tribunal his behaviour with the patient he was convicted of sexually touching was “one isolated incident”.
However, the tribunal noted his extramarital affair and inappropriate behaviour with the third woman suggested that he had a history of targeting women in a vulnerable position.