A DOCTOR clutched his hands to his face as he was yesterday cleared of sexually abusing his patients.

Yenugula Srinivas, a locum GP who worked at a number of Oxford surgeries, was acquitted of seven charges of a serious sexual assault and four of sexual assault at Oxford Crown Court yesterday afternoon.

A jury of eight men and four women had deliberated for 12 hours and 11 minutes before clearing the 42-year-old of seven of the charges.

The jury could not come to an agreement on two charges of a serious sexual assault and had already been directed at the end of the evidence by Judge Tom Corrie to find Dr Srinivas not guilty on one of the sexual assault counts.

The two counts upon which the jury could not decide were formally dismissed.

Dr Srinivas, who remains suspended from practising pending a review by the General Medical Council, came to England from India in 1999 and began working in Oxford in 2007.

Following his arrest in June 2009 he always denied carrying out intimate examinations on female patients for any sexual motive.

He admitted his note taking, which sometimes meant such examinations were not recorded, was below par but said each procedure was clinically justified.

Giving evidence he said his mother’s death at the age of 59 from breast cancer made him want to make female patients more “breast aware” by telling them about or demonstrating self-examination.

In reference to an appraisal he had at one Oxford surgery where he spoke of his weaknesses, he told jurors: “I was out of my depth with something like gynaecology and sometimes paediatrics.

“It is a learning process and I thought I should get used to that.”

When asked if he was experienced in gynaecology he replied: “That is not true.”

The married GP, whose wife works at the Churchill Hospital, admitted his note-taking was “poor” and sometimes “extremely brief”.

After yesterday’s verdict’s prosecutor Cathy Olliver said: “It may well be now that the General Medical Council will review whether this doctor is allowed to practise as a GP any more.

“I should like to thank all the women who came forward, in both trials, for very bravely giving their evidence about a subject that must have been difficult for them.

“Without their assistance in this case, it might well have been that this doctor would have continued practising without proper knowledge of how to diagnose gynaecological problems, thus putting women’s health in danger.”

Dr Srinivas, of Church Road, in Sandford-on-Thames, declined to speak after the verdicts.