A paedophile doctor has been found guilty of sexually abusing an eight-year-old boy from Hove after sedating him.
Robert Cameron Wells, 69, formerly of Hangleton Road, Hove, was convicted by a jury at Hove Crown Court today (Tuesday 27 July).
Wells, who also previously lived at Brighton Marina, was convicted unanimously of two counts of indecency with a child and a charge of trying to take an indecent image of a child.
He denied the charges and went on trial a week ago but the jury took less than three hours to find him guilty.
Wells admitted a separate charge of indecency with a child, two counts of rape, nine counts of indecent assault and four counts of taking indecent photographs of a child.
Most of the offences took place in the Brighton and Hove area where Wells worked as a GP (general practitioner) until 2003. He admitted abusing two girls, one of them aged nine, and two 18-year-old women.
One of the indecent assaults involved a 15-year-old girl. Wells assaulted her at his surgery in Portslade in 1998 when she went to him for advice about an abortion.
He was working as a forensic medical examiner, or police doctor, for Hampshire Constabulary when he abused the eight-year-old boy in the 1990s. Patients and parents appeared to have trusted him even more because he was not just a doctor but a police doctor.
Robert Wells is due to be sentenced by Judge David Rennie on Monday 6 September.
The jury was told that, in 2004, Wells was convicted of abusing three girls and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was struck off as a doctor.
He was released in 2014 but returned to prison the following year for breaching the terms of his licence.
Shortly afterwards further complaints were made about him. As a result, he was convicted of four indecent assaults involving three young girls and in April 2017 he was sentenced to seven years behind bars.
Yesterday, Jennifer Knight, prosecuting, told the jury at Hove Crown Court that the young boy abused by Wells was now a troubled 31-year-old man.
Wells took the boy from a birthday party, sedated him and drove him to an industrial site where he was forced to take part in a sick film with a girl who also appeared to have been drugged.
Miss Knight said: “This quite literally is the stuff of nightmares.
“There is a chilling – almost film-like – element to his experiences … It sounds like a nightmare because it was a nightmare … the feverish imaginings of a disturbed mind.”
The victim was vulnerable because his parents separated acrimoniously when his mother had an affair with another man – also a local family doctor – and moved hundreds of miles away.
She tried to prevent her son from seeing his father – now dead – and even falsely accused him of sexually abusing the boy himself.
The GP, who became his step-father, was also described as “a sick and twisted monster” who physically abused the victim’s mother and emotionally abused the victim.
In his teens, he turned to cannabis and later prescription drugs and, at times, psychedelic drugs, Miss Knight said, but “he is a young man who cannot rid himself of the horrific memories of something that happened to him”.
She added that “he is plagues by flashbacks and nightmares”, had tried to kill himself and “his mind is full of chaos and confusion”.
But, she said: “He is always very careful to be clear about what he does remember and what he doesn’t know. He is a young man who is telling the truth.”
As for Wells, Miss Knight said: “He has committed sexual offences against children for 30 years or more. He abused the trust placed in him by patients and their parents.”
He operated in a sophisticated way, Miss Knight said, and “he plays on the trust that his status confers”.
She added: “Robert Wells put his profession to use in his offending, not just to win people’s trust but to sedate them.”
Alisdair Williamson, defending, told the jury yesterday: “When you look at the man in the dock, you could be forgiven for feeling utter disgust and repulsion.
“He is a complete monster … the stuff of all our nightmares … He has put himself beyond the pale.
“If ever there were a man capable of doing what (the complainant) said, there he sits.”
But, Mr Williamson said, the victim used to blame his step-father for all his troubles and now he blamed Wells, “because we need someone to blame when our life falls apart.”
The complainant took drugs to try to remember what had happened to him and pieced together real experiences with things that were not real, he said, adding: “His own mother falsely accused his own father of sexually abusing him.”
Mr Williamson said that just because Wells had done terrible things, it didn’t mean that he had done the terrible thing that was accused of.
Although it was hard, he told the jury that they had to be “sure” if they were to convict Wells who maintained that the events described did not happen.
The jurors were sure and they convicted Wells unanimously on all three counts.
…
After the verdict, Detective Constable Owen Watkins, of Sussex Police, said: “Wells was clearly a systematic and serial sexual abuser of young people, using his charm and air of professional distinction to lure them into a sense of false security for his own gratification.
“Only one of the victims was abused by Wells acting in his official capacity as a doctor but all the others came to know him, whether through family or work, because of his role and were clearly influenced by his status.
“These convictions, and his previous convictions, show how his appalling record goes over many years and it is reassuring for his victims and for the wider community to know that he is going to be in no position to continue preying upon innocent people for many years to come.
“His victims in this case have given full support to the investigation. One of them, now in his thirties, gave evidence in court, and the others were ready to do so. We admire the strength and bravery shown by all of them which was so crucial in ensuring that justice was done.
“We are also grateful to our colleagues in the Hampshire Constabulary for the assistance they have given us in this complex investigation.”
Whhy was such an evil monster released in 2014? Surely those responsble for his release are partly to blame for his subsequent behaviour.
The offences against the 8 year old boy happened long before 2014. This scum has been a monster for over 30 years. He should be put down. His solicitor should hang his head in shame for trying to trash the reputation of the young man whose life this creature has ruined.
Heard he was on the RIANS list of people involved in Satanism. A lot of people from Hampshire.