‘Extremely serious and very repugnant’: Lifetime ban for doctor who sexually assaulted patient

A Québec doctor who pleaded guilty in a criminal court this year to sexually assaulting a patient by rubbing his penis on her buttocks and ejaculating on her back has been banned from practice in the province for life and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine plus college costs. Dr. Maurice Bosembo Ilondjo, a family physician who practised in Blainville, Que., until April 2020, declined to attend the Collège des médecins du Québec’s discipline board hearings on case decision and sanctions, which took place between October 2022 and January 2023. The revocation of his licence came just one month before a Québec court sentenced him to three years’ probation and 240 hours of community service. “The acts committed by (Dr.) Bosembo are extremely serious and very repugnant,” the college’s assistant trustee told the disciplinary board during the sanction hearing. What made the offences even more unacceptable was Dr. Bosembo’s failure to acknowledge the impact on the patient. In fact, according to the decision document, he minimized the sexual assault by telling the patient—in a sneering manner—that “she was no longer a child.” When she confronted him tearfully about it during a subsequent visit, he responded by telling her that he thought “she had forgotten that.” The assault happened in December 2016, towards the end of the business day for the clinic where Dr. Bosembo practised. The patient had seen him three months earlier for back pain and had come back because the pain persisted. Dr. Bosembo had advised her previously to go for physiotherapy or massage therapy but she told him she could not afford these services. Read: ‘Thanks for the good time’: Gynecologist found guilty of making sexual remark to patient about to give birth On the day of the assault, Dr. Bosembo told the patient she had thoracolumbar sprain and offered massage maneuvres to relieve the pain. He told the patient to lie on her stomach on the examination table and rolled a bottle filled with hot water on her back. After about two minutes, the patient turned her head and saw that Dr. Bosembo had unzipped his pants and was sliding his penis over her buttocks. She protested and tried to get up but he restrained her and kept her on the table, according to the decision document. “She said ‘no, no’ several times—she is paralyzed,” the discipline board wrote. But Dr. Bosembo told the patient he just needed “African warmth” and assured her he would not penetrate her. After ejaculating on the patient’s back and underwear, he left briefly and returned to wipe her back with paper. The medical clinic was deserted by the time the patient was able to leave the examination room and the main door to the clinic was locked, according to the decision document. Dr. Bosembo gave the patient some sample anti-inflammatory drugs and a work stoppage form to give to her employer. Over the next year, the patient became very ill and consulted Dr. Bosembo three more times because she needed to see a doctor, she told the college. During the last visit, Dr. Bosembo told her she needed to book an appointment for a PAP smear. The patient burst into tears and reminded Dr. Bosembo about what he had done to her the previous year. Read: No recollection: How a doctor's lapse of memory led to a patient’s deterioration and a three-month suspension According to the decision document. Dr. Bosembo expressed surprise that the patient could still remember the incident and asked him to forgive her. The patient told him she no longer wanted him as a family doctor for herself or her children. It took another year-and-a-half for the patient to talk to someone other than Dr. Bosembo about the sexual assault. She sought help from a community organization that supports sexual assault victims and was connected to social services for psychosocial assistance. A psychologist later described the patient to the college as an “internalized victim." While the patient’s religious and cultural beliefs made her reluctant to report the assault, she was eventually persuaded by social services staff to talk to police, which pressed charges against Dr. Bosembo. In a victim impact statement read by the Crown prosecutor during Dr. Bosembo’s criminal sentencing hearing, the patient told Dr. Bosembo how “you have changed my life. Within minutes my life became hell.” Before the sexual assault, wrote the patient, “I was a good wife, a good mother and proud of my life. Coming out of there, everything was gone forever.” Her husband she said, wanted to divorce her because of what Dr. Bosembo had done. Read: REVOKED: Toronto doctor sexually assaulted patient and invited her to 'arousal sessions'

‘Extremely serious and very repugnant’: Lifetime ban for doctor who sexually assaulted patient

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