A DOCTOR has appeared in court charged with a string of sex offences against 38 patients – including abusing a child aged under 13.
Nathaniel Spencer, 38, allegedly carried out the offences between 2017 and 2021 at two different hospitals.
He appeared at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court today charged with 45 sex offences allegedly committed against 38 women.
Spencer is accused of 15 counts of sexual assault and 17 counts of assault by penetration.
He is also charged with nine counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, three counts of assault of a child under 13 by penetration and one count of attempting to assault by penetration.
Spencer, who has not entered pleas, was told he will face trial on a date to be fixed and at a location that has yet to be determined.
Recorder of Stoke-on-Trent, Judge Sally Hancox, told him: “There will be a further hearing in this case – that will not be before Monday May 11th – when further directions will be set.
“At the next hearing further consideration will be given to the location, timing and timetable of the trial, and if necessary arraignment will take place.”
The former doctor, of Birmingham, was held following an investigation by Staffordshire Police.
Officers probed the alleged claims at Royal Stoke University Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent, and Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley.
Spencer has been suspended from medical practice in the UK pending the outcome of the investigation.
Ben Samples, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for the West Midlands CPS Complex Casework Unit and Serious Violence, Organised Crime and Exploitation Unit, said: “We have decided to prosecute Nathaniel Spencer for a number of serious sexual offences allegedly carried out against patients while he was working as a doctor – including assault by penetration and sexual assault against a child.
“Our prosecutors have worked at length to support a detailed and complex investigation by Staffordshire Police, carefully reviewing the available evidence to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings.”
