Jury deliberates in retrial of Calgary psychiatrist Aubrey Levin

March 20, 2014

The legal fate of former forensic psychiatrist Aubrey Levin, accused of sexually molesting two male patients under his care at his office in Peter Lougheed Centre, is now in the hands of a jury.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Beth Hughes sent the jury out to deliberate at about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday on two sexual-assault charges against the 74-year-old doctor.

The jury deliberated for six hours before being excused for the night. The jurors will return to their deliberations tomorrow morning.

Both charges had first gone to trial in 2012, but were among four counts that ended up with a hung jury. He was convicted of three similar charges and acquitted of two others in the first trial.

Two of the four counts subject to the jury deadlock were stayed by the Crown and the other two were set for the second trial.

Levin appealed the first three convictions last October, but the Alberta Court of Appeal has yet to release a decision.

Crown prosecutor Shane Parker argued Tuesday that Levin should be found guilty of both charges, saying he had no authority to conduct any examination of his patients’ genitals,

“If you say this was not a proper exam, then there’s only one other reason: it was done for a sexual purpose,” Parker told the jury of six men and six women.

“A psychiatrist should not be doing these types of exams. When you fondle a person’s genitals, it is a continuous sexual assault. These men had their sexual integrity violated ... it was fraud, it was medical make-believe. The fairy tale is over.”

Parker also stressed that Levin made no notes or any other type of documentation of the visits, presumably so he would not get in trouble.

Defence lawyer Chris Archer outright discredited one complainant, J.M., who testified Levin fondled him for some 30 seconds during an exam to check for sexually transmitted disease on Dec. 15, 2009.

He said Levin was checking the other patient, K.S., for potential melanoma, a type of skin cancer on his genitals, on Nov. 5, 2008, and during a followup on Feb. 3, 2010. Archer said Levin wanted to see if the mole was still there and if it had grown. Both alleged assaults took a few minutes of the total appointments.

“The examination of K.S. was a valid medical examination for melanoma,” said Archer. “It was proper medical exam for cancer screening. If the mole is melanoma, it’s potentially deadly.

“These were complete medical exams, nothing more, nothing less. They were done in a doctor’s office by a doctor.”

Parker said Levin did not wear rubber gloves, for protection of both himself and the patients, he did no actual tests for melanoma, no referral to an oncologist or other specialist, and he made no followups.

Source: Daryl Slade, "Jury considers fate of former psychiatrist," Calgary Herald, March 19, 2014.