West Berkshire doctor sexually assaulted boy on multiple occasions and confessed behaviour to a monk

A former doctor who confessed to a monk that he sexually assaulted a boy has been found to have carried out the abuse.

Dr Robin Borthwick indecently assaulted a boy repeatedly in the 1970s and 1980s in West Berkshire - including in a GP surgery.

Borthwick, of Southend Road, Bradfield, has been charged with four counts of indecent assault on one complainant, who was a child at the time the alleged offences were carried out.

The 78-year old was declared too unfit to give evidence and so the case at Reading Crown Court was a trial of facts.

In testimony to the jury, the victim told the court how Borthwick said 'no-would believe him' if he spoke out.

The complainant said on one occasion he was shown a "violent pornographic video" by the GP before later being indecently assaulted.

The judge commended the victim for speaking out and said it would give others a voice.

He said: “Your strength has turned something evil into something good for the future.”

Reacting to the outcome of the case, DC Joanne Williams describes the challenges surrounding the investigation,

"It's very difficult because, of course, we don't have the forensic capability, CCTV, even mobile phone data that we would have now or in cases since the noughties onwards.

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"This case is as old as the seventies and eighties. There isn't that. So it's very difficult. And we were very fortunate to have a witness who was able to tell us some things that the suspect had said, which strengthened our case."

Father Peter Bowe, a monk at Douai Abbey in Woolhampton, told how after a mass in February 2022, Borthwick asked to speak to him and confessed he had "touched a boy".

Father Bowe said: "After mass he asked could he have a word. I took him to a room where we were alone.

"He wanted to tell me that the police had been to see him and had told him that there was an alleged incident of sexual abuse by him many years before and he told me that in confidence, but not in confidence of what we call sacrament of confession.

• Thames Valley Police's investigating officer DC Joanne Williams

"He told me in confidence and I knew immediately I would have to speak to the safeguarding officer in the parish."

DC Williams added, "Whether we are able to successfully prosecute or not for that person, they're living with the fallout of this abuse.

"By talking about it, we're able to support our victims both by the police, but we can also signpost them to other people that can help them. And sometimes, just talking about it and being involved in the process can help them."

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