Doctor, 33, jailed for secretly filming women is struck off

Porn addict doctor, 33, jailed for secretly filming women having sex and taking showers using a tiny camera hidden in an electric toothbrush, is struck off

• Dr Vinesh Godhania accessed pornographic sites 19,400 times over 11 months
• Evidence also found he hacked into iCloud accounts to steal sexual pictures  
• The offending covered the entire span of his medical career from 2012 to 2020 
• Covert filming victims included hospital patient and 17 people at his homes 
• He was jailed for 32 months at St Albans Crown Court in November last year  
• Dr Godhania has now been struck off the medical register following a tribunal

A porn addict doctor who was jailed for secretly filming women having sex and taking showers through a tiny camera hidden in a toothbrush has been struck off the medical register. 

Dr Vinesh Godhania, from Norwich, accessed pornographic and other sexually explicit websites more than 19,400 times over an 11-month period between January and November 2020.

Evidence also found he hacked into victims’ iCloud-based accounts to steal intimate and sexual images to trade and post online.

The victims included a patient filmed at Basildon Hospital and a further 17 people using bathrooms and toilets at his homes, while Dr Godhania also stole data from the iCloud accounts of more than 100 individuals – including 23 colleagues.

He ‘purchases technological equipment’ and used a small camera hidden in an electronic toothbrush in a bathroom to film housemates and visitors to his home in Essex.

The offences spanned his entire medical career from 2012, when he was still a medical student, through to 2020.

Dr Godhania was arrested in November 2020 after cyber crime officers became aware he had been paying fees to use a data breach search engine.

He admitted seven counts of recording a person doing a private act and eight counts of causing a computer to perform function with intent to secure/enable unauthorised access at West and Central Hertfordshire Magistrates’ Court in August last year.

He was subsequently sentenced to two years and eight months’ imprisonment and made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years at St Albans Crown Court in November 2021.

The doctor has now also been struck off the medical register following a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing on June 23.

Dr Vinesh Godhania (pictured) accessed pornographic and other sexually explicit websites more than 19,400 times over an 11-month period

A panel heard that Dr Godhania qualified in 2012 and worked in various hospitals before leaving the profession to begin working at his parents’ tobacconist shop in 2018.

During his eight years as a doctor, he used a ‘combination of surreptitiously placed cameras in the bathrooms and toilets of the homes he has lived in’ to film women having sex, taking showers and using the bathroom.

The tribunal heard that the victims included one member of the public filmed at a hospital, professional colleagues and 17 identified victims of voyeurism at Dr Godhania’s homes.

Meanwhile, data was also stolen from the iCloud accounts of more than 100 people and a search of his home found folders containing stolen data from 23 colleagues and credentials of 160 victims. All the victims were adults and ‘almost exclusively female’.

Evidence found he was still a fully qualified doctor when he had ‘sustained access’ to a website used by hackers to steal intimate and sexual images from iCloud accounts after leaving the profession.

Prosecutors also told St Albans Crown Court that his offending involved ‘potentially 2,000 victims’.

The doctor was sentenced to two years and eight months’ imprisonment and made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years at St Albans Crown Court (pictured) in November 2021

One victim impact statement, included in the panel’s report, read: ‘When you go to hospital you are very vulnerable, you naturally trust the professionals dealing with you and certainly do not expect this violation. 

‘I feel uncomfortable and unfortunately this incident will change my view of people in a position of trust and will stay with me for a long time. 

‘I believe I will be more cautious and anxious in the future when dealing with people on a similar basis, especially when sharing information with others.’

The tribunal heard that Dr Godhania’s offending behaviour was ‘ongoing for a minimum of eight years and increased in seriousness over time’. 

In a letter to his sentencing judge, the doctor said his ‘compulsive viewing of pornography had begun over 20 years ago’.

He also told probation services that he was aware he had issues since the age of 16 and described the problems as ‘addiction’, but had made no attempt to seek help.

Passing its ruling, panel chair Melissa Coutino said Dr Godhania ‘abused his position of trust’ and that his actions were ‘pre-planned, deliberate and sophisticated and went on for many years’.

One of the victims covertly filmed by Dr Godhania was a patient at Basildon Hospital in Essex 

The report added: ‘The Tribunal concluded that Dr Godhania’s sexual misconduct was particularly serious. It took place over a prolonged period of time, was extremely serious and impacted on the privacy and dignity of patients, colleagues and members of the public. 

‘Dr Godhania’s offending behaviour engaged all three limbs of the overarching objective and amounted to a significant breach of principles set out in GMP. 

‘The Tribunal concluded that given the seriousness, sophistication, scale and nature of Dr Godhania’s actions, his behaviour was fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.’

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