Ex-doctor promises never to treat again

When a 23-year-old man walked into a suburban Sydney surgery complaining of a burning sensation when urinating, a court has heard, his elderly doctor didn't beat around the bush.

"Have you f***ed recently?" Claude Reitberger is said to have asked.

When his patient agreed he had, Reitberger leaned over and proceeded to masturbate the young man as he lay vulnerable and semi-naked on the examination table.

"The doctor said, 'Relax and enjoy it. I will, too'," Sydney's District Court heard on Friday.

But despite committing what Acting Judge Williams called a "grave breach of trust", Reitberger has walked free from court after promising never to attempt to return to medical practice.

The 76-year-old has already been stripped of his right to practise and has signed a statutory declaration stating we will never seek to return to his old job.

Reitberger was charged with two counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse without consent following the 2012 incident at his surgery.

But he was only found guilty of one count of indecent assault in May this year following a trial.

In sentencing him on Friday, Judge Williams said: "A doctor who commits a sexual offence against a patient is betraying a considerable trust, and that is the community trust placed in the doctor-patient relationship."

He said the septuagenarian continued to deny any wrongdoing, adding that although the former doctor agreed his language was "inappropriate", he liked to try to interact with patients on their level.

"However, he is to be sentenced for indecent assault and not for a bedside manner which may be regarded (as) inappropriate or unorthodox," the judge said.

He sentenced Reitberger to a year's imprisonment but suspended the term due to the combination of the former doctor's age, ill health and "the lack of clarity as to the rationale and the factors behind the verdict".