Victims of creep doctor speak out
Updated . First published at
Ryan Cho is a student doctor turned sexual predator.
He was caught secretly filming colleagues in staff showers and bathrooms, amassing a chilling cache of images.
Ryan Cho was caught secretly filming colleagues in staff showers and bathrooms. A Current Affair
Now their fight is no longer with him, it’s with the hospitals they worked for and trusted.
Two of the health care workers are not ready to share their identities but they want their voices to be heard.
“It was humiliating, embarrassing, all sorts of emotions,” one victim said.
The first time we learnt about Cho’s sick twisted ways was in July last year.
The trainee doctor was arrested after a recording device was found in a staff bathroom at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital.
But the true scale of his offending wasn’t exposed until police raided his home.
The 29-year-old had been secretly filming colleagues for four years at three major hospitals – the Austin, the Royal Melbourne and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
“The amount of people that were affected by this man’s actions, it was soul-destroying,” another victim said.
Police found evidence of Cho setting up one of the cameras.
It was hidden in a mesh bag and hung up inside a bathroom on a removable hook that wasn’t installed by the hospital.
In some cases, he also blocked off other toilets to funnel staff into the one he bugged.
When detectives cracked his electronic devices, they found more than 10,000 intimate files, including 4500 videos. A Current Affair
“I can remember going to the bathroom and sitting on the toilet and seeing the bag and thinking oh that’s funny but we just would not question it, wouldn’t go through someone else’s belongings,” the older victim said.
When detectives cracked his electronic devices, they found more than 10,000 intimate files, including 4500 videos.
His hard drive was meticulously organised with folders named after the three hospitals, their bathrooms, and hundreds of victims’ names, including the wards they worked on.
“I contacted the sexual abuse department and was told that I was a victim of Ryan Cho and that they would be coming to the hospital for me to identify the photograph,” the older victim said.
The younger victim said she was put in a room with other nurses during the process.
“I sat there for around half an hour and then they were just calling in nurses, one after the other, one after the other to identify themselves,” the younger victim said.
The older victim said she was “shocked and horrified” when she had to go back to the hospital and identify herself in the photos.
“Just worried, where has this footage ended up? What is he using it for?” the victim said.
A year after Cho was arrested, he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of installing an optical surveillance device, producing intimate images and stalking.
He will be sentenced later this year.
But for his victims, their next fight is against the hospitals.
“The fact that that backpack was there for weeks and weeks and weeks is very disturbing,” the younger victim said.
“Why was that backpack there for so long?”
The women say their employer, Royal Melbourne Hospital, sent generic, mass emails after the images were exposed, but that it has never contacted them personally.
“It would be a long, arduous task, but I think under the circumstances and that it was something that was such a violation that to have contacted each person that was affected would have been a nice gesture, a good gesture,” the older victim said.
The women said the only visible response from the Royal Melbourne Hospital was a coat of pink paint on the walls of the bathroom where the sickening crimes occurred in an attempt to make victims feel more comfortable.
Staff at the Austin claim they were offered a “Cho Day”, which was essentially mental health leave.
However some said when they tried to take it, they were told no because the hospital was too short-staffed.
“Even just saying like it’s a Cho Day, it’s like it’s a joke,” the younger victim said.
“That has stopped me from wanting to ever work in a hospital environment again.”
Cho’s victims have joined forces with Carbone Lawyers, launching a class action against the hospitals they say failed to protect them.
“These are the frontline workers, these are the people that help people and you should be looking after them,” lawyer Tony Carbone said.
The question he is asking is how so many of Cho’s red flags were missed.
“He’d swiped into that particular toilet block over 100 times and he wasn’t even working on that floor, which makes it even more astounding,” Carbone said.
“It makes you think, how was this not picked up by hospital management?”
Both women, like many others, have been so profoundly affected they haven’t been able to return to work.
“I take medication to sleep and medication to cope with the day, to be perfectly honest,” the older victim said.
“Yeah, it’s had a huge impact.”
As Cho waits to learn his fate, these women are fighting for something bigger than justice.
They want the hospitals to strengthen safeguards for staff to make sure his crimes don’t become a blueprint for the next predator.
“I’m just really disappointed in the hospital,” the younger victim said.
“I feel like they have failed their staff miserably.”
Statement from Austin Health
This has been an incredibly distressing situation for our staff, and their safety and wellbeing is our absolute priority.
We acknowledge our staff who escalated this matter swiftly.
Austin Health immediately acted on concerns of staff, including through an incident control structure.
We remain committed to supporting those affected and acknowledge the courage of those who have participated in the criminal investigation and court process.
We have provided comprehensive support services to staff since becoming aware of the criminal activity of Ryan Cho and are doing everything we can to help our staff through this challenging time.
As proceedings remain before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment further.
Statement from Peter Mac
This has been a distressing period and one that has impacted many people at Peter Mac.
We continue to prioritise and support the wellbeing of our staff in a variety of ways including through our in-house psychology service and Employee Assistance Program.
Statement from The Royal Melbourne Hospital
The Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) strongly condemns the alleged actions of Ryan Cho.
Our focus remains on supporting our people, and their wellbeing, through this difficult time.
We continue to provide comprehensive, trauma-informed wellbeing services for our people.
The RMH actively worked with Victoria Police through their investigation, and as the matter is before the courts it would be inappropriate to make any further comment.
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