Wigan's week in court

A doctor from Wigan who violently raped a woman and then threatened to release a video of the attack said he was not interested in the outcome of a medical tribunal – and wants to quit the UK “due to stressful personal events”.

Vibhor Garg, who was branded “selfish” as he was jailed for 11 years, has been immediately banned from working in medicine by a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel, which said his behaviour undermined patients’ and the public’s trust in the profession.

But the 37-year-old, who qualified from the University of Baroda in India, said in a letter to the panel: “I am not interested in (the) outcome of the case as I will be deported out (of) the country at the end of my sentence.

“I no longer wish to stay and practise medicine in the UK, even if given the opportunity, due to stressful personal events … I do not wish to attend hearing.”

Garg, formerly of King Street in Wigan, forced himself on his victim during the night in Sheffield while staying at the same address as her, South Yorkshire Police said.

Pinning her down, he threatened her with scissors, gagged her with tape across her mouth and tried to tie her hands behind her back, the force added.

He was arrested the next day but bailed pending further inquiries after denying the attack, the medical tribunal was told.

Garg then began repeatedly contacting his victim, who cannot legally be named, saying he would release a recording of the rape and kill himself if she did not withdraw her allegation, the panel heard.

The training fellow in orthopaedics was found and arrested in Bournemouth last September, charged and remanded, police said.

He was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court in February after pleading guilty to rape, oral rape and perverting the course of justice, the force added.

The medical tribunal cited the sentencing remarks of the judge, who told Garg: “This was not a random, spur-of-the-moment incident.

"This was not you just looking at her and deciding, ‘I’m having my way’.

"This was far, far more than that.

“You grabbed hold of her. You then tried to bind her. You tried to stop her from being able to scream by taping her mouth.

"You tried to blindfold her, and then you raped her.

“It’s difficult to see, from any point of view, how when a woman is crying and pleading for her mum, as (the victim) has graphically described in her statement to the court, how anyone can get pleasure under those circumstances but, you did, because you continued.”

A spokesperson for the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where Garg was employed, said he was “absent from work when the trust was made aware of the allegations and never returned”.

They said: “The trust immediately reported Dr Garg to the GMC (General Medical Council) and he was subsequently dismissed in line with the trust’s disciplinary policy.”

The trial of a hotel owner who ran over a bride’s mother on the eve of a wedding has been halted after prosecutors said there was no longer a prospect of a conviction.

Nicholas Bannister, 64, was on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of causing the death of Judith Wadsworth, 66, by careless driving.

Mr Bannister – chairman of Haydock Park Racecourse – was formally acquitted by a jury on the directions of a judge.

Mrs Wadsworth was crossing an access road near the main entrance to Coniston Hotel, near Skipton, when she was hit by Mr Bannister’s Range Rover in February 2020.

A jury heard how the vehicle pulled out from a small road from the reception area and was travelling at nine to 12mph.

Mr Bannister stopped the car about 20m after the impact.

Prosecutor Michael Smith told the jury the prosecution was no longer offering any evidence.

Judge Jonathan Gibson said this was “an entirely appropriate decision in my view” and ordered the jury to find Mr Bannister not guilty.

The trial heard how Mrs Wadsworth checked into the hotel for her daughter’s wedding, scheduled for the next day, and was walking to reception after collecting items from her car when the incident happened.

The jury heard how Mr Bannister told police and others at the scene “I just didn’t see her”.

In his police interview, he described how he got into his car outside the hotel to drive the 300-400m to the spa complex to go for a run.

Mr Bannister, of Bell Busk, near Skipton, said: “I turned right and the first I was aware was a terrible noise I heard from under my car.

"I assumed something had gone wrong with my car.”

The prosecution case ran into difficulties during the evidence of the police officer who oversaw the investigation, PC Emma Drummond, who told jurors she had recorded the exact position of Mrs Wadsworth’s Mini car in the car park in her notebook.

Lisa Judge, defending Mr Bannister, said this information had not been made available to the defence and the notebook had not been disclosed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Ms Judge said these “flagrant failures on behalf of the prosecution” meant much of the case presented against her client was no longer admissible, especially relating to a reconstruction by the police in the hotel grounds two years after the incident.

She told Judge Gibson the information about the location of the Mini fundamentally changed how the reconstruction could be interpreted.

She had already criticised the reconstruction as she questioned experts, police and other witnesses, pointing out it was impossible to know exactly where the Range Rover was positioned at the time of the collision and where Mrs Wadsworth was as she crossed the road.

Addressing the jury, Michael Smith, prosecuting, said: “The CPS takes the view that there is no longer a realistic prospect of of conviction in this case.”