Sydney, Australia – An Australian gynecologist "deliberately" performed a "massively disfiguring" operation on a female patient without her consent, leaving her genitals mutilated, a court has heard.
The doctor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is standing trial in the Sydney District Court charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on Carolyn De Waegenaire, as well as an offense of excising or extracting her clitoris unnecessarily.
Prosecutors told the jury that De Waegenaire had a consultation with the physician in 2002, and he allegedly told her that the operation known as a vulvectomy, which is a procedure to remove abnormal or cancerous skin from the vulva, would be a “relatively minor procedure.”
He allegedly said “only a small flap of skin” would be removed and she would be in hospital for about three days.
"The accused deliberately performed this surgery, he did it either deliberately, to hurt her, or recklessly – without considering her human suffering," the prosecutor said.
The doctor has pleaded not guilty, and this week his lawyer told the jury his client performed the operation because he was “trying to save her life.”
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