Doctor convicted of raping daughter for years collapses after threat of incarceration

A Calgary doctor who spent years raping his own daughtershrieked and collapsed on thefloor of the courtroom at the threat of being taken into custodymoments after he was convicted of sexual assault.

The 62-year-old man cannot be named in order to protect the identity of his daughter.

The Calgary GP was convicted of sexual assault and sexual interference on Wednesday. When prosecutor KyraKondroand defence lawyer Balfour Der began discussing whether he should be taken into custody pending sentencing, the manappeared to pass out.

He was taken away on a stretcher by paramedics andreleased from hospital later in the day.

The doctor's daughter told Justice Robert Hall a horrific story of years-long abuse involving being raped several times a week from the time she hit puberty, and other forms of sexual abuse beginning when she was just six years old.

Despite the doctor's denials, Hall said "I believe her" before delivering his decision.

The judge said the accused's testimony was "not credible in the least."

"I do not believe the accused."

Father used religion to threaten victim

In 2015, the victim, then 18 years old, told a co-worker about the abuse. That co-worker thengot the police and Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre involved. The girl disclosed the crimes during interviews with police in October2015.

She said her father began sleeping in the same bed with her when she was about six, first lying on top of her naked and then progressing over the years.

When he began having sex with her, he would physically assault her if she resisted. She said he also used religion to convince her to co-operate, telling her she must honour her father and obey him. If she did, she would be rewarded by god; if she did not, she would be punished by god.

She said she would try to make noise during the assaults to wake up her mother, which worked on one occasion. She said her father got up, ran out of the room and was confronted by her mother. After an argument, the assaults stopped for a period but then resumed.

Victim believes mother knew, stayed silent

The doctor promised his daughter the sexual activity would stop once she turned 16but it did not.

The girl had male siblings and a mother who lived in the same home. She believed her family knew about what was taking place but stayed silent. The siblings and mother testified the entire family was dependent on the doctor's income.

At one point, the victim disclosed the abuse to a family friend, who confronted her father. At that time, he admitted to sexually abusing his daughter, but after he apologized to her, the abuse continued and police were never contacted.

That family friend, an evangelist, was called as a witness by prosecutor Kondro and confirmed he did confront his friend around 2013.

The doctor admitted to the abuse but he begged his friend not to report it. The evangelist admitted he'd borrowed money from the doctor and not paid it back.

'I feel disgusted'

After he was arrested at his clinic, the father confessed to police, telling the investigator everything his daughter had disclosed was true.

"I feel disgusted talking about this," he said. "She was just too close to me ... she wouldn't sleep in her own room. Too close, too close."

Though he had confessed to police and to the evangelist, when the doctor testified in his own defence, he denied all of the allegations, which the judge ultimately rejected in favour of the victim's testimony.

Kondro told the judge she would be seeking a "lengthy prison term" and then the doctor collapsed on the floor.

The case will be back later in the month so Hall can decide whether to take the offender into custody pending sentencing. At that time, a date for sentencing willbe set.

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