London, Sept. 15 (PTI): An Indian-origin doctor in Britain has been convicted of repeatedly assaulting women patients sexually on the pretext of giving them “stress-relieving” massages.

Praminder Mankoo, the 47-year-old hair consultant, would give his patients scalp massages and then start groping them. The massage, he would tell them, would help combat the scalp problems better.

His victims told the Oxford Crown Court that Mankoo would ask them to strip to their undergarments at his Thame clinic in Oxfordshire. His excuse: the massage oil would soil their clothes.

The most notable testimony came from a 48-year-old victim, Rayne Franklin, who visited his clinic in 1998.

Franklin said the doctor first massaged her shoulders and then “slowly his hand crept down” to her private parts. She also said that Mankoo stripped before her. “I was terrified but I knew I couldn’t confront him because the door was locked, there was no one around,” she was quoted as saying.

Mankoo is likely to be sentenced next month. Defending him, Christine Agnew said her client needed time to “put his house in order” before he was awarded any punishment. He has been freed on bail.