West Berkshire GP Dr Robin Borthwick ‘groomed and sexually abused boy’ court told
A WEST Berkshire GP groomed a nine-year-old boy before repeatedly sexually abusing him, a court has heard.
Dr Robin Borthwick, pictured with the boy in the 1970s, was a respected GP with surgeries in Calcot, Bradfield, Pangbourne and Theale.
But for decades he was hiding a dark secret, jurors have heard.
Now aged 78, Dr Borthwick, of Southend Road, Bradfield, is suffering from dementia and has been deemed unfit to stand trial.
Instead, a ‘trial of facts’ is being held at Reading Crown Court, where a jury will decide whether or not the allegations are proved.
Charles Ward-Jackson, opening the case for the prosecution on Wednesday, October 18, said Dr Borthwick was living in Bradfield Southend and working in Calcot as a GP when he befriended his victim’s family.
He would shower the boy with gifts, including a bicycle, a radio and trips to the zoo.
One night, during a sleepover, the GP entered the boy’s bedroom, ordered him to remove his pyjama bottoms and indecently assault him, said Mr Ward-Jackson.
The abuse continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s in bedrooms, the GP’s car and even in his surgery.
The boy was “mortified” by the abuse but compartmentalised it in his mind, jurors were told.
The GP allegedly told him to keep it secret and warned: “No one will believe you anyway.”
Giving evidence, the complainant, now in his 50s, said the first time it happened, “I thought he was coming to read me a bedtime story.”
He added: “He said he needed to look at me...I remember his breathing becoming heavy.
“I remember his aftershave...I remember his hairy arms – and I remember being terrified.
“I was left wondering what had happened...I knew what had happened wasn’t right so I clutched my teddy and cried myself to sleep.”
On another occasion Dr Borthwick took the child to his surgery and drew the blinds.
The complainant said: “It was in Pangbourne, I think...I knew exactly what was going to happen next.”
The abuse continued until the boy was 14 when Dr Borthwick showed him a violent pornographic film of a woman being gang raped before molesting him.
The complainant told the jury: “I can honestly say that was the lowest point of all; I just wanted everything to end.
“I cried myself to sleep.”
After decades battling depression and suicidal thoughts, the court heard, the complainant sought counselling and reported the abuse to police in July, 2021.
Following his arrest, Dr Borthwick confessed his guilt to a priest at Douai Abbey in Woolhampton, Father Peter Bowe, the court heard.
Fr Bowe, a former parish priest in Woolhampton, Pangbourne and Theale, told jurors that, following a mass in February 2022, Dr Borthwick confessed he had "touched a boy.”
Her added: “He asked could he have a word.
“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.
“He told me that in confidence, but not in the sacrament of confession, under seal.
“He said he had done it once and highly regretted it.
“He knew it was legally and morally wrong and he was liable for comeback on it.”
Fr Bowe said Dr Borthwick had seemed “a very kind man, wonderful with the old people he visited on behalf of the parish.”
Daniel O'Donoghue, for Dr Borthwick, asked Fr Bowe whether the words "legally wrong" were his own or Dr Borthwick's.
He replied: "No - I would think that those admissions came from him."
Dr Borthwick is charged with four counts of sexual abuse allegedly committed during the 1970s and 1980s.
He is not attending the hearing.
The trial of facts continues.
