Ex-GP told monk he sexually assaulted boy in Berkshire, court hears

A former doctor confessed to a monk he had sexually assaulted a boy, a court has heard.

Dr Robin Borthwick, 78, is accused of indecently assaulting the boy repeatedly in the 1970s and 80s in west Berkshire, including in a GP surgery.

The ex-GP has been charged with four counts of indecent assault relating to one complainant.

Dr Borthwick has been deemed unfit to stand trial due to his health so a trial of facts is being held.

Father Peter Bowe, a monk at Douai Abbey in Woolhampton, told the jury at Reading Crown Court that after a mass in February 2022, Borthwick confessed he had "touched a boy".

Father Bowe said: "...he asked could he have a word. He wanted to tell me that the police had been to see him and had told him that there was an alleged incident of sexual abuse by him many years before.

"I said what you've told me I will have to tell safeguarding and possibly the police. He told me the police have already been.

"He told me that years before he had sexually assaulted, I don't know whether he used that word, he touched a boy.

"He didn't give a date and it was way back before he was married and before he became a Roman Catholic."

Father Bowe said it was decided Dr Borthwick could still attend church as it was a public place and "he didn't have access one-to-one with young people".

Father Bowe told the jury Dr Borthwick told him he had "done it once and he highly regretted it" and that he knew it was "morally wrong and legally wrong".

Charles Ward-Jackson, prosecuting, said the complainant was aged between nine and 13 or 14 when the offences were alleged to have occurred at a surgery and two other locations.

The complainant, giving evidence on Thursday, said of the first offence: "I was left wondering what had happened, I was terrified."

He said Dr Borthwick had told him "not to tell anyone and if I did no-one would believe me".

On another occasion, he alleged he was shown a "violent pornographic video" by Dr Borthwick before later being indecently assaulted.

The trial of the facts continues.

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