Guilty

A Leeds Crown Court jury also found him guilty of indecently assaulting the same patient, of twice indecently assaulting a second patient, and also of an indecent assault against a third woman.

Haslam, 69, of Crayke, near Easingwold, was not sentenced today, but he was warned by Mr Justice Gray that a custodial sentence was inevitable.

Haslam, who was granted bail, will discover his fate next Tuesday.

His barrister, Tom Bayliss QC, indicated to the court that an appeal was being considered.

The rape took place at Clifton Hospital, a former psychiatric hospital, in 1988.

The raped woman was indecently assaulted earlier that year at Bootham Park Hospital while undergoing carbon dioxide therapy.

One of Haslam's victims, Lila Taylor, 58, of Dringhouses, who was twice assaulted in 1981 while being given a baby oil massage by the doctor, was overwhelmed with emotion when she was informed of the verdict today by the Evening Press.

During the trial, she told the jury that she was invited to Clifton Hospital on a Saturday afternoon by Haslam to be given a massage with baby oil. She alleged that the consultant had touched intimate areas of her body.

Haslam told the jury that he had carried out a number of massages with baby oil or talc on a number of completely naked women patients without chaperones, because he had believed it would be beneficial to them. But he denied this ever led to any indecent assaults.

The rape victim told the jury that the attack happened after she was taken to an upstairs room at Clifton Hospital.

She said that afterwards she fled in shock and terror, pursued through the hospital and to her car by the doctor.

She said she felt "absolutely terrified" and even feared for her life. She later drove to Strensall Common and cut her wrist with a razor blade.

She told the jury that the earlier indecent assault occurred when Haslam was administering carbon dioxide therapy to her. She told the court that she fell unconscious after breathing in the gas and awoke to find Haslam spreadeagled on her.

The indecent assault on the third victim happened at York Hospital, while Haslam was treating her for a sexual difficulty.

Detective Sergeant Maria Taylor, who was involved in the investigation into Haslam, said: "This has been a very long and difficult investigation."

She said the verdict was a result of people having the strength and courage to come forward and give evidence at court.

David Johnson, chief executive of North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire Strategic Health Authority, said: "Michael Haslam has been revealed as a man who preyed on vulnerable women and betrayed the trust placed in him by patients.

"On behalf of the NHS, we wish to offer our sincere apologies to the victims of his assaults.

"Although no system can prevent the acts of a determined criminal, it is important to remember that much has changed within the health service in the years since Michael Haslam committed his assaults, including significant improvements to complaints systems and clinical governance, which provide improved safeguards for patients."

Updated: 13:45 Friday, December 12, 2003