Doctor charged with grooming and sexual assault of girl
A doctor recently employed at hospitals in Bendigo and Ballarat has been charged with the grooming, sexual assault and sexual penetration of a 13-year-old girl, but his registration has not been suspended by the Medical Board of Australia.
Dr Obiyo Chigozie Nwigwe, 43, was charged by detectives from the Ballarat sexual offences and child abuse investigation team with 12 charges over his alleged misconduct between January and April 2020. At the time of the alleged offending, Dr Nwigwe was employed as an intensive care specialist at Bendigo Hospital, after completing a stint at the Ballarat Base Hospital in 2019.
The alleged victim is not believed to have been a patient at either hospital.
Obiyo Chigozie Nwigwe is facing charges at the Ballarat Magistrates' Court.
Dr Nwigwe had previously worked at several hospitals in the United Kingdom after obtaining a Bachelor of Medicine in 2001 at Abia State University in Nigeria. He is understood to have emigrated to Australia in 2017, when he first registered with the Medical Board of Australia before joining the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine in 2018.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, which has oversight of more than 750,000 health practitioners, became aware of the criminal charges against Dr Nwigwe in May, but has not suspended his registration to practice medicine.
Instead, AHPRA accepted an undertaking from Dr Nwigwe to not work as a doctor, which is listed on its online register of practitioners.
"On 18 May 2020, the Medical Board of Australia accepted a legally enforceable undertaking that prevents Dr Nwigwe from practicing as a medical practitioner anywhere in Australia," an AHPRA spokeswoman said. "We will continue to liaise with Victoria Police in relation to the charges."
Dr Nwigwe was granted bail in May and will return to the Ballarat Magistrates Court for a committal mention on August 6. His solicitor David Tamanika did not respond to requests for comment.
Dr Nwigwe is the second doctor to face serious sexual assault charges in Victoria in the past two months. In June, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald revealed a general practitioner based in Melbourne had been charged with the rape and sexual assault of a former patient inside a toilet cubicle at the Hotel Esplanade in St Kilda.