A FORMER Hampshire doctor raped and indecently assaulted young girls thinking he was “bomb-proof” because no one would believe a child over him, a court heard yesterday.

Michael Salmon, 79, who used to live in Wood Green in the New Forest, worked at hospitals in Buckinghamshire including Stoke Mandeville in Aylesbury, which has been in the spotlight after disclosures about the activities of disgraced late DJ Jimmy Savile.

But Miranda Moore QC, prosecuting at Reading Crown Court, said Savile would hardly feature at all in the case.

“There might be the odd passing reference, but there’s no suggestion that this defendant abused a young female patient in concert with Jimmy Savile. It’s simply that these allegations relate to a time when the other things were happening,” she said.

Salmon, of Park Lane, Salisbury, Wiltshire, faces three counts of rape, 11 of indecent assault, and two of using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage.

The charges relate to eight girls aged from 11 to 18, between 1973 and 1988.

Ms Moore said most of the 16 counts were of a very similar nature, in that they allege sexual assault on young girls.

“Each count relates to a young girl that he met while working as a consultant paediatrician based in Buckinghamshire.”

She said the defendant would examine young girls in a consulting room, where either they were screened from their parent or parents, or the parents were outside the room.

“On some of the occasions he handled the breasts of some of the young girls, with the pretence of listening to their heart, and he also on occasions carried out internal examinations, something for which there was no medical need whatsoever, without a nurse present and without wearing surgical gloves.”

She added: “In one case he used a girl’s distress to offer to undertake an illegal abortion, and raped her in the aftermath, at the same time.”