A doctor from Bolton has been accused of sexually assaulting a patient during a hospital assessment.

Dr Abdelaziz Elrefaey, of Beehive Road, Great Lever, is standing trial at Bolton Crown Court for the alleged sexual assault.

Elrefaey, 35, who denies the charge, appeared in court yesterday, Tuesday, as the case got underway.

The assault is reported to have taken place when he was performing an assessment on a woman at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury in January 2021.

The court heard evidence from the complainant, a woman who attended the hospital due to suffering symptoms of what she believed to be anaemia.

Prosecutor Mark Kellett questioned her in front of the jury.

He began by asking her about why she went into hospital that day.

She said: "I felt sick and dizzy. I had been diagnosed with anaemia before so I thought it was symptoms of that. It was around 2pm."

The woman said the symptoms gradually got worse, before ringing 111 at around 10pm, who told her to attend hospital.

After undergoing a triage assessment and an ECG test, the complainant then waited for around "two hours" before being seen by Dr Elrefaey, now in the early hours of January 13.

Mr Kellett asked her if the doctor gave her his name, to which she said: "No, he didn't tell me his name."

She said she now knows that he is Dr Elrefaey. The complainant then said that he saw her "in a cubicle thing with a curtain" with the curtain pulled across for privacy.

She said: "I told him my symptoms, my chest pain, back pains, dizziness and throughout the day feeling sick. He said he had to examine me.

"He was pressing down on my stomach, and then under my boob. Under my boobs, in my chest area."

She said that Elrefaey touched her around the bottom of her ribs.

The woman said: "He was pushing down under my boobs. The bottom of my boobs."

She added that he was doing so with both hands, in an open-handed position.

She said: "I found it weird that there was nobody else in the room with him."

On being asked if she asked about that, she said: "No, because I should be able to trust a doctor."

Elrefaey also examined her back, the court heard.

Mr Kellett said: "There was touching your abdomen and touching of your back. Did he touch any other part?

The complainant said: "Underneath my breast, but touching my boobs as well."

She confirmed that the palm of his hand touched her breast, and described the touching as "caressing".

She said: "He was pushing down, but when he stopped pushing down he was still touching."

The woman then said that either during or after the alleged assault, Elrefaey said: "You are beautiful, do you live alone? Can I come round?"

He then administered a blood test, with the woman leaving the hospital later on January 13.

At 10.10pm the same day, she said she received a text from an unknown number. It said: "Hi (name), how are you feeling right now? I hope you are fine."

After she asked who it was, she said another text came back saying: "I am the doctor who seen you yesterday, I just wanted to assure you that you are fine now."

She said she then asked how he got the number and what his name was.

She texted: "You're not supposed to get my number off the system and text me."

Mr Kellett asked why she thought that he had taken her number from the hospital system, to which she said: "Because I didn't give it to him."

After that text, he said: "I am really, really sorry."

She said she then asked him to tell her his name a couple of times, before saying: "Not as though you were touching me up, calling me beautiful, asking where I lived and saying you want to come round, now you get my number off the system and text me."

He replied: "I am really sorry, let me confirm I will not do it again."

She said she again asked what his name was, with him replying: "I am really sorry, please forgive me."

This was said to have continued for a couple of more texts, before he told her that his name was "Robert".

He was then reported to have said: "I swear I have never done it before, please forgive me please I am really anxious please forgive me."

Defending, Zoe Johnson KC asked questions of the complainant about the events of the day. 

She said that on the medical records filled out by practitioners there was no mention of chest pain, with pain markers being listed as zero. 

However, the complainant said that she "would have" told them about the chest pain. 

Ms Johnson asked the woman if she remembered various things about the day, to which she replied: "I don't remember because it was three years ago."

Ms Johnson also played CCTV footage to the court, showing the complainant walking into the hospital and then speaking to Elrefaey and going into the curtained cubicle.

The case was adjourned in the middle of cross examination. The case continues.