Wigan rapist doctor Vibhor Garg 'not interested' in tribunal outcome

Vibhor Garg was struck off by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel

A doctor who raped a woman told a tribunal he did not care about its outcome as he wanted to quit the UK "due to stressful personal events".

Vibhor Garg, 37, formerly of Wigan, who had threatened to release a video of the rape in Sheffield, is serving an 11-year jail term.

Garg wrote in a letter to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel he was "not interested" in the hearing.

He has been immediately banned by the panel from working in medicine.

The tribunal said Garg's behaviour had undermined patients' and the public's trust in the profession.

Garg was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court in February to 11 years in jail, the tribunal panel heard

Garg, formerly of King Street, Wigan, had forced himself on his victim during a night in Sheffield while staying at the same address as her, South Yorkshire Police said.

Pinning her down, he had threatened her with scissors, gagged her with tape across her mouth and tried to tie her hands behind her back, the force added.

He was arrested the next day, but was bailed pending further inquiries after denying the attack, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service was told.

Garg then began repeatedly contacting his victim, threatening to release a recording of the rape and to kill himself if she did not withdraw her allegation, the panel heard.

The training fellow in orthopaedics, who qualified from the University of Baroda in India, was found and arrested in Bournemouth last September, charged and remanded, South Yorkshire Police said.

He was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court in February after pleading guilty to two counts of rape and perverting the course of justice, the force added.

'No longer wish to stay'

In his letter to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, he said: "I am not interested in [the] outcome of the case as I will be deported out [of] the country at the end of my sentence.

"I no longer wish to stay and practise medicine in the UK, even if given the opportunity, due to stressful personal events."

Banning Garg from working in medicine, the tribunal panel cited the sentencing remarks of the judge, who told him: "This was not a random, spur-of-the-moment incident.

"This was not you just looking at her and deciding, 'I'm having my way'. This was far, far more than that."

The judge added that "the selfish nature" of what Garg had done was "utterly deplorable".

A spokesperson for the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where Garg was employed, said he was "absent from work when the trust was made aware of the allegations and never returned".

"The trust immediately reported Dr Garg to the General Medical Council and he was subsequently dismissed in line with the trust's disciplinary policy," they added.

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