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| Raffaele di Paolo. © Artemedica (INSET) |
A Melbourne, Australia man accused
of posing as a gynecologist faces more than 80 charges, including 28 counts of
rape, an Australian court heard. He is said to have provided medical services,
including fertility treatments, without a license for over a decade.
Daily Mail UK/RT
report continues:
Raffaele
di Paolo, 59, appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday, on
charges which span from July 2004 to May 2015, the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC) reports.
Those
charges, which involve an unknown number of women, include eight related to
posing as registered health practitioner, 28 counts of rape and 27 counts of
procuring a woman to take part in an act of sexual penetration by falsely
claiming to be a registered medical practitioner.
Di
Paolo, who was born in Italy, faces a further 21 counts of obtaining money
through deception, by accepting payment for medical treatment he was not
qualified to provide. Those payments are believed to total approximately
AU$320,000 (US$224,896).
He
is also charged with one count of administering fertility medication without
being properly qualified and placing a person in danger of serious injury.
In
addition to those charges, the court heard on Friday that there are more
complainants and that more charges could be laid.
The
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority (AHPRA) is also pursuing
eight charges against Di Paolo for allegedly falsely calling himself a
gynecologist and obstetrician. According to documents filed by the authority,
Di Paolo falsely claimed to have experience in fertility medicine in Italy and
Australia.
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The Australian
Health Practitioner Regulation Agency is also pursuing charges against di Paolo
and said he had never been registered as a doctor with the Medical Board of
Australia
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The
AHPRA began legal action against Di Paolo in March 2015, saying he had never
been registered as a doctor with the Medical Board of Australia. It said the
action was made after it received a complaint about Di Paolo.
At
the time of the legal filing, one of Di Paolo's would-be ‘patients’ told
Melbourne newspaper the Age that the 59-year-old presented himself as an
Italian-trained fertility specialist who was now delivering alternative
fertility treatments, including homeopathic remedies from Germany, because he was
disillusioned by “money hungry IVF factories that herd women like cattle.”
"He
had ultrasound equipment, syringes, bins to dispose of them properly, and a
proper medical bed that went up and down. He had everything," she said.
"He impressed as articulate and intelligent,” said the woman, who admitted
she spent more than AU$30,000 (US$21,079) on services administered by Di Paolo.
She
admitted, however, that not all of Di Paolo's practices seemed professional.
"He
did things like taking my blood out of my arm and injecting it back into my
stomach, but when he took blood supposedly to send it off for hormone levels,
he never labeled the blood. I always said to him, 'You're not going to get my
blood mixed up with the woman before me, are you?’ He would just say 'Don't you
worry Princess, it's all taken care of.'"
She
recalled Di Paolo using a “massive needle” to inject what he said was her
partner's sperm into her stomach.
"God
knows what he was injecting into me...” she said.
Di Paolo, whose company
Artemedica is also facing action by the AHPRA, has been scheduled to return to
court in June.
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