SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine – A medical doctor was Monday arrested and charged with raping a 26-year-old self- employed woman.

The doctor, who appeared before St Catherine Resident Magistrate Lorna Errar-Gayle, was granted bail in the sum of $60,000, with surety, and was booked to reappear in court on Tuesday, February 27.

The magistrate instructed that his fingerprints be taken by the police to determine if he had a criminal record.

Outlining the allegations to the court, arresting officer Corporal Susan Fullerton said on January 9, 2007, the complainant reported that on December 20, 2006, she consulted the doctor at his surgery in Spanish Town, and while he was attending to her he allegedly pulled his licensed firearm and forced her to have sexual intercourse with him.

The police, Corporal Fullerton said, took the complainant to a doctor for examination and collected a medical certificate.

Statements were collected and submitted to the clerk of the courts for direction, who ruled that the doctor be charged.

Corporal Fullerton said that a warrant was prepared and the doctor was arrested and his firearm seized.

Defence attorney Earl Delisser made an impassioned plea for bail on behalf of the doctor, telling the court that the accused was well-known. The complainant, the defence counsel told the court, had two similar cases pending in court against two businessmen who she alleged raped her. He said it appeared that reporting sexual cases against men was her specialty.

The police confirmed Delisser’s argument and told the magistrate they were investigating two instances of alleged rape of the complainant against a Kingston businessman and a Spanish Town nightclub operator. Both assaults were alleged to have been committed late last year.

Asked by Errar-Gayle if she acknowledged making the reports to the police, the complainant said she was sexually assaulted by the Kingston businessman, but said she did not know anything about the other complaint.

After consulting the Bail Act, the magistrate granted the doctor bail.