18 year sentence for former doctor.

A former doctor at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where disgraced DJ Jimmy Savile abused patients, has been jailed for 18 years for indecent assaults and rape.

Former consultant paediatrician, Michael Salmon, 80, was convicted of nine indecent assaults carried out against girls at the Buckinghamshire hospital and two rapes between 1973 and 1988.

Judge Joanna Cutts sitting at Reading Crown Court described Salmon as a "cold and manipulative" man.

She added that his conduct was a gross breach of trust and all the more horrific because the offences were carried out against "vulnerable children".

The judge told Salmon that his actions were a "rare case of cold-blooded sexual exploitation against children” in which he acted with "conceited arrogance" for his own "sexual gratification."

The convictions related to six victims but Thames Valley Police said more women had contacted them with allegations against Salmon since the start of the trial.

The court heard that the consultant paediatrician thought he was "bomb-proof" because no one would believe a child rather than him, the court was told.

He abused children behind a screen while their parents waited, believing he was carrying out a medical examination. On some occasions he groped the girls' breasts under the pretence of listening to their heart.

The court also heard that, in one instance, Salmon took a 16-year-old girl to his home and raped her before dropping her off at a bus stop to make her own way home.

Salmon, of Salisbury, in Wiltshire, was struck off the medical register in 1991.

Allegations about Salmon were first made to the Metropolitan Police in 2012 during investigations of historical abuse carried out by Savile and others.

Thames Valley Police, which took over the investigation into Salmon, said the former consultant the allegations were "sexual fantasies.”

After the convictions, Adrian Foster from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Salmon’s crimes were traumatic for his victims who should have expected his support rather than this gross betrayal of their trust.

"Michael Salmon used his status to molest these vulnerable young girls and women who felt unable to complain as he was a doctor, and many who bravely came forward only after seeing other cases in the media."

 Det Sgt Malcolm Wheeler added that the former doctor was a "prolific sexual offender" who "preyed on young girls.”

Salmon worked at Stoke Mandeville Hospital at the same time as Savile was abusing vulnerable girls but it was said that their crimes were not linked.

Savile, a volunteer porter, is believed to have committed 22 offences at the hospital.

An independent inquiry was set up to look into Savile's activities and this led other women to come forward to accuse Salmon.