A doctor with a porn addiction who was imprisoned for using a tiny camera hidden in a toothbrush to covertly record women having sex and taking showers has been expelled from the medical register.
Over the course of an 11-month period from January to November 2020, Dr. Vinesh Godhania of Norwich browsed pornographic and other sexually explicit websites more than 19,400 times.
He allegedly stole private and sexual photographs from victims’ iCloud accounts to trade and post online, according to the evidence.
The victims included a patient who was seen on camera at Basildon Hospital and an additional 17 others who used the restrooms and toilets at his homes.
Dr. Godhania also took data from more than 100 people’s iCloud accounts, including 23 colleagues.
He “purchases technology equipment” and filmed his Essex housemates and guests using a small camera placed inside an electric toothbrush in a bathroom.
The offenses occurred between 2012, when he was still a medical student, through 2020, over his entire medical career.
After cybercrime investigators learned that Dr. Godhania had been paying fees to use a data breach search engine, he was detained in November 2020.
At the West and Central Hertfordshire Magistrates’ Court in August of last year, he pleaded guilty to eight counts of causing a computer to perform a function with the intent to secure or enable unauthorized access, as well as seven counts of recording a person performing a private act.
At St. Albans Crown Court in November 2021, he was subsequently given a sentence of two years and eight months in jail, made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and listed as a sex offender for ten years.
Following a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing on June 23, the doctor has now also been removed from the medical register.
After earning his medical degree in 2012, Dr. Godhania worked at a number of hospitals before quitting his job in order to start working at his parents’ tobacconist shop in 2018.
He recorded women having sex, taking showers, and using the restroom over his eight years as a doctor using a “combination of covertly hidden cameras in the bathrooms and toilets of the homes he has lived in.”
The tribunal was informed that the victims included 17 known voyeurism victims in Dr. Godhania’s homes, a member of the public who was filmed in a hospital, as well as professional colleagues.
Additionally, information was taken from more than 100 people’s iCloud accounts, and a search of his house uncovered files holding the credentials of 160 victims as well as information stolen from 23 coworkers and their accounts.
The victims were “nearly all female” and all adults.
Evidence revealed that he had “continuous access” to a website used by hackers to obtain private and sexually explicit photographs from iCloud accounts while being a fully licensed doctor.
Additionally, prosecutors told the St. Albans Crown Court that his offenses potentially affected 2,000 victims.
The panel’s report contained victim impact statements, one of which stated: “When you go to the hospital, you are quite vulnerable; you naturally trust the people dealing with you, and you surely do not expect this violation.
“I feel uneasy, and regrettably, this occurrence will permanently alter how I perceive those who have positions of trust for me.
When dealing with similar persons in the future, especially when disclosing information to others, “I believe I will be more careful and concerned.”
The tribunal was informed that Dr. Godhania’s unlawful behavior “has been continuous for at least eight years and has grown increasingly serious over time.”
His doctor claimed in a letter to the sentencing judge that he had been obsessively watching pornography for more than 20 years.
Additionally, he admitted to having problems since he was 16 and labeled them as “addictions,” but he said he had never tried to get assistance.
Dr. Godhania “abused his position of trust,” according to panel head Melissa Coutino, adding his acts were “pre-planned, premeditated, and sophisticated and went on for many years.”
According to the report’s conclusion, Dr. Godhania engaged in very significant sexual misconduct.
It was exceedingly serious, took occurred over a lengthy period of time, and had an impact on the privacy and dignity of patients, coworkers, and members of the public.
“Dr. Godhania’s violating behavior involved all three facets of the overarching goal and amounted to a serious violation of GMP’s guiding principles.”
The Tribunal came to the conclusion that Dr. Godhania’s conduct were fundamentally incompatible with continued registration given their seriousness, sophistication, scope, and character.