Heart doctor banned for one year after caning teenage daughter for going to a Halloween party

Gohar Rahman was sentenced to 10 months in prison after admitting to assault occasioning actual bodily harm to his daughter

Dr Rahman has been suspended from his practice at Wigan Infirmary (Google)

A leading doctor who physically assaulted his daughter with a cane has been suspended from practice for one year.

Dr Gohar Rahman, 57, repeatedly punched his daughter and called her a “prostitute” after she went to a Halloween party and stayed over at a male friend’s home.

His daughter, who was then 17, had gone to the party after falsely telling her father she would be home by 9.30pm, the tribunal heard.

After he picked her up from the party the following morning, Rahman dragged her by the hair, hit her with his walking stick and punched her in the head, accusing her of “bringing shame” upon the family.

Rahman, a consultant cardiologist at Wigan Infirmary, assaulted his daughter at home before ordering her to change into more traditional clothing and ordering her to pray.

Police were called after the daughter sent a plea for help on social media.

Doctors found she had received bruising to her forehead, lower back, left shoulder and left side, as well as three marks where she had been hit by the stick.

A clump of her hair also fell out, doctors reported.

The unnamed girl, who is now 18, later described her father as “looking like a monster” and described the assault as “awful”, leaving her with lasting psychological damage.

She said her studies had been disrupted and is has been receiving counselling since the ordeal.

In February this year, Rahman - who formerly worked with the United Nations - was given a suspended jail term after he admitted to assault occasioning actual bodily harm to his daughter.

He was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended fo two years, and ordered to complete 100 hours’ unpaid work.

A tribunal panel decided on Monday that he would not be struck off the medical register, because he had shown “significant remorse”.

He was ordered to serve a 12-month suspension.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing had previously heard evidence that the incident occurred after Rahman's daughter - who was referred to only as “A” - left the family home on October 31 last year to go out for the evening with a college friend.

She knew her parents wouldn't allow her to attend the Halloween party so she told them she would be at a friend's house and return at 9:30pm, although she intended to stay out all night.

Her parents called her after she failed to return and her father told her to come home so he could teach her a lesson.

Noel Casey, lawyer for the GMC, described the attack to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service: “She was saying say sorry to her dad to make it stop. A’s father threw her on the floor and kicked her while she was on the floor.

“He told her to get up, so she did but he dragged her up from the floor by her hair. He was slapping and kicking her back and arms so she fell to the floor again. She remembers being hit with a shoe and was assaulted to her arms back and bottom.

”During this he was saying to her that he did not recognise her as a daughter, she was bringing shame on the family and again that she was a prostitute.“

Rahman then demanded the passcode for her mobile phone and hit her with a walking stick after she refused to give it to him.

He is currently suspended by the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Foundation NHS Trust but remains on the payroll.