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A DOCTOR who raped dozens of patients and secretly filmed examinations for almost two decades has been jailed in Norway.
A court on Friday sentenced Arne Bye, 55, to 21 years in prison in a case that has shocked the Scandinavian country.
Ex-GP Bye has been convicted of 70 instances of rape and sexual assault, which he committed during gynecological exams of patients from 2004 to 2022.
He was also condemned for 80 instances of abuse of his position as a doctor.
Almost all these crimes took place during medical exams that Bye performed at his clinic in the small town of Frosta, located in central Norway.
The court in the city of Trondelag banned Bye from exercising his medical profession indefinitely and demanded he financially compensate his victims.
In the trial, 94 women provided testimonies, detailing how Bye engaged in numerous acts of non-consensual touching and inappropriate digital penetration without any medical reason.
The acts all constitute rape under Norwegian law.
Addressing the court on Friday, Judge Espen Haug reportedly said: “The suspect’s actions make this case an extremely serious one. The actions are unacceptable.
“The defendant’s actions happened in a place and setting where people are supposed to feel safe.
“His actions have undermined public trust in the health service as well as doctors in general.”
The 55-year-old defendant stood up and appeared calm as the maximum sentence was handed to him.
The sentence matched the one requested by the prosecution.
Bye’s defense had argued for lesser sentence, recognising only 20 of the rapes.
Bye also filmed the assaults.
Cops seized over 6,000 hours of footage during their investigation, including of his gynaecological examinations.
Bye was shown to have inserted a “deodorant-like”, “bottle-like” and a cylindrical object into the women – with no medical reason for doing so.
One woman, speaking to the court last November, said: “I thought I was going to die”.
Another unnamed woman said she had gone in to her GP’s office for a sore throat – before being given one of the invasive examinations.
She told how she ended up in her underwear on a bench, saying: “I thought that he is my doctor, so I did as he said.”
The indictment against Bye says the alleged assaults “happened quickly and unexpectedly” during the examinations.
Concerns were raised about him as long ago as 2006 – by another doctor in the gynaecology ward at a local hospital.
One of Bye’s patients, who was there for further treatment, said her doctor had massaged her genitals during the exam.
Bye was able to keep his job until the following year when charges were filed.
HOW YOU CAN GET HELP:
Women’s Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
- Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@supportline.org.uk.
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
