A disgraced former Lanarkshire doctor has lost a bid to challenge his 12-year jail sentence for committing a campaign of sexual abuse against patients.
Krishna Singh, 73, was convicted of 54 offences, involving 47 women and girls and spanning more than 25 years, following a trial earlier this year during which he denied abusing his position to carry out assaults.
Patients who suffered from the GP included a rape victim, teenagers and pregnant women, the High Court in Glasgow heard, and his trial was told that he was a sexual predator “hiding in plain sight”. Singh had denied the charges.
Trial judge Lord Armstrong told him he had undermined the standing of the medical profession and eroded the trust of female patients, describing his serial offending between February 1983 and May 2018 as “calculated and manipulative” and saying it was abhorrent to society.
Singh, who was based at a health centre in Coatbridge and who had been awarded an MBE in 2013, was aged 72 when he was jailed earlier this year.
Lawyers acting for him had sought to challenge the sentence imposed as excessive, but permission for an appeal to proceed was not granted by a judge during an initial sifting process.
He then had 14 days to lodge an appeal against that decision to a second sift, dealt with by more than one judge, in a bid to secure a hearing for his challenge, but no application was made in time.
Judges at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh were yesterday (Wednesday) urged to grant an extension of time to allow his case to go to a second sift after an “administrative oversight" at a law firm was blamed for the failure to react to the initial decision in time.
Lord Woolman, sitting with Lord Doherty, was told there was no fault on Singh’s part in what had occurred and he should be allowed the opportunity to have his proposed appeal considered further.
But Lord Doherty said the time limit may only be extended if the court was satisfied it was justified by exceptional circumstances. He said: “The court is not satisfied there are exceptional circumstances justifying the extension sought.”
The appeal judge said that Singh was convicted of a prolonged course of sexual offences against patients which had “a devastating impact on many of the victims.
Lord Doherty said the proposed note of appeal against the sentence imposed on Singh did not disclose grounds that were arguable and said the trial judge had not misdirected himself.
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