Lainey says the GP who sexually abused her during an examination treated her like ‘a piece of meat’
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When a doctor carried out a gynaecological examination on Lainey, she felt something was not right about the way he did it.
As a teenager, she did not have the confidence to challenge him, but later understood that her instincts were correct.
Lainey’s father died when she was young. She says that she sometimes felt vulnerable growing up without a father.
When Lainey had just turned 17 she developed a gynaecological condition, so her mother took her to the GP surgery. She saw a locum doctor and her mother and a nurse were also in the room.
During the examination, the doctor did not speak to her or look at her, and he put his fingers inside her vagina. At that time, Lainey wasn’t completely sure whether this examination was medically inappropriate, but she instinctively felt it was.
She says ‘Sometimes you know something is wrong ... a feeling in your gut something is off, even if you can’t prove anything’. She adds ‘His whole ambience was very angry. He didn’t look at me or speak to me’.
Lainey cried all the way home. She can’t remember what she said to her mother about why she was upset, and she says she is not sure who she could have told about what had happened, or even if there was anything to report.
When she went to university she became friends with a medical student. After knowing this friend for a while, Lainey related what had happened to her. The friend said it was a totally unnecessary examination for the condition she had.
Several decades later, Lainey still has flashbacks of the assault. She says ‘It still makes me angry that he didn’t have to face anything for doing that. He probably did that his whole career’.
She believes the doctor spotted a vulnerability in her and her mother. ‘I think he knew my mother wasn’t the sort of person to question him.’
The experience made Lainey wary of men and feel that she would never want to see a doctor about any other gynaecological problem.
However, she has minimised the seriousness of what the doctor did, saying ‘Other people go through worse … it wasn’t rape … it was minor’.
Lainey thinks the locum doctor will almost certainly be dead by now. She is considering discussing what happened with the surgery, to see if there were any complaints about the doctor, and to seek assurances about their current safeguarding practices.
She believes that campaigns and awareness-raising about child sexual abuse are essential, along with education about appropriate and inappropriate touch. She also emphasises the importance of clear whistleblowing policies to protect people who speak out about their concerns.
Lainey is not sure the surgery would have believed her if she had reported the abuse. ‘It’s very different now but things still happen.’ She adds ‘It’s very important that doctors say what they are doing as they do it. It was as if I was a piece of meat, he completely ignored me’.
She feels she is well-supported, with friends and a husband she can talk to.