A retired Brisbane dentist, who drugged a teenage dental nurse with laughing gas and sexually assaulted her 40 years ago, has been found guilty of rape.

July 10, 2020

A retired Brisbane dentist has been found guilty of drugging a teenage dental nurse with laughing gas and sexually assaulting her 40 years ago.

The man, now 68, gave the young woman about four times the normal dose of nitrous oxide before unzipping her uniform while supposedly treating a hole in her tooth in 1980.

As the woman, then 19, lay dizzy and disorientated in the dentist chair, she attempted to fight the man off “but he was too strong”, a Brisbane District Court judge wrote on Friday.

His victim reported that indecent assault to police five years ago after an article on workplace harassment and bullying jogged her memory of the incident.

She also told investigators the same orthodontist exposed her to pornographic images in the dental surgery’s lunchroom and raped her.

“As she did her usual daily routine of cleaning the surgery after the last patient, he walked over to her, pushed her to the floor, pulled down her underwear,” Judge Deborah Richards said.

“She said kept saying ‘no’ over and over, she was kicking the door with her left foot and crying.”

Detectives charged the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, with indecent assault and rape in 2016.

He denied the allegations and told police he had only a vague memory of his accuser.

His lawyers urged Judge Richards to consider the similarities in the case to that of Cardinal George Pell, saying the woman’s memory was poor.

But Judge Richards said her evidence was detailed and consistent, and the Crown had proved beyond a reasonable doubt the attacks happened.

She found the man guilty of sexual assault and indecent assault..

He will be sentenced at a date to be fixed.