Doctor span web of lies to sabotage flatmate’s relationships, court told

A doctor who had feelings for his flatmate created fake screenshots and sent him threatening messages in an attempt to sabotage his relationships, a court was told.

General practitioner Javed Saumtally went so far as to send himself abusive texts and invented a police officer as part of his web of deception, a jury heard.

Saumtally allegedly told the elaborate lies – complete with false reports to police – while living in Brighton in 2018.

The 28-year-old, who now lives in Ipswich, Suffolk, appeared at Hove Crown Court for trial yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 25 August) after he pleaded not guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice.

Jonathan Atkinson, prosecuting, said that the various lies were part of a “concerted ploy by Mr Saumtally to deliberately undermine the relationships of his flatmate … to (make him) feel under threat and harassed as a result, all the while pretending to act as an understanding friend and companion.”

In his actions, Saumtally was “motivated by his own feelings” for his male flatmate, the prosecutor added.

Mr Atkinson said that the defendant set about “sending abusive and derogatory messages from unknown numbers” to his flatmate but also to himself.

This was “no doubt to make it look like he was also a victim and to deflect attention away from him”, Mr Atkinson said.

Saumtally made use of fake messaging applications and websites in order to furnish his deception, the court heard.

One such fake message, the jury was told, appeared to have been received by Saumtally from a man his flatmate knew and said: “I am going to ruin his life.”

When a man his flatmate had been seeing returned from a trip to Portugal, he was met with screenshots of WhatsApp messages he had supposedly sent.

These suggested that he had been seeing other people on the trip.

These messages, Mr Atkinson said, were “faked”.

The defendant denies the charge.

The trial, which is expected to last about a week, continues.