Shropshire doctor cleared of five sex assaults on colleagues but jury cannot decide on further two charges

The jury at Shrewsbury Crown Court was unable to reach verdicts on two further charges in the case of 37-year-old Mahendar Kumar Katarapu following a four-day trial.

Judge Jim Tindal discharged the jury and the prosecution must now decide whether to hold a re-trial on the two offences.

Katarapu, formerly of Edgecombe Way, Shrewsbury, had denied seven allegations of sexual assault involving four women between August 2016 and March last year.

He was said to have touched the breast and thigh of one junior doctor and the breast and bottom of two nurses, and it was claimed the defendant had deliberately got close to the victims for his own sexual gratification.

The jury heard that Katarapu had worked on a general ward and had no professional reason to be in areas where the victims worked.

One of the victims, a physician in her 30s, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had claimed that on separate occasions he had put his hand on her thigh, put his groin against her and touched her chest.

The defendant is alleged to have touched two other female staff and was alleged to have 'engineered' himself into a position to touch the breast of a nurse as she used a printer.

The three women did not know his name but later identified him to police but Katarapu told the court that the women were mistaken and that he was not responsible for the incidents.

A fourth woman, a health worker, who knew of the defendant, alleged he had touched her chest and stroked her bottom as she stood near a filing cabinet.

The jury was unable to reach verdicts on the two charges after the defendant claimed that the incidents had never happened.

Judge Tindal adjourned the case until January 19 for the prosecution to consider whether to seek a re-trial and Katarapu was allowed bail with conditions of surrendering his passport, reporting to Redditch police and not contacting any prosecution witnesses.