The “strikingly similar” alleged sexual assaults reported separately by 21 patients of Dr. George Doodnaught could not be coincidental hallucinations, Crown attorney David Wright argued in his closing statement at the anesthesiologist’s trial Wednesday.

Doodnaught, 60, a sought-after specialist at North York General Hospital, faces 21 charges of sexual assault against 21 women ranging in age from 25 to 75.

“These were common, brazen, opportunistic assaults,” Wright told Ontario Superior Court Justice David McCombs on the final day of the trial. The women, semi-conscious and immobilized from the waist down for lower body surgery, were vulnerable and defenceless, “like children,” Wright said.

Doodnaught is accused of kissing some of the patients, fondling their breasts and placing his penis into their mouths or hands.

The Crown alleged he was able to do so because he was concealed from surgical staff by a sterile drape placed over the patient’s upper body.

Using his decades of experience, “he timed these brief sexual assaults with surgical precision to avoid detection,” Wright said.

The defence had argued Tuesday that the positioning of the equipment in the operating room would have made it physically impossible for Doodnaught to get close enough to place his penis in the mouth of a patient.

Wright said Doodnaught would have been able to move the equipment to suit his needs before the surgery began.

However, it is the parallels in the 21 cases that make the Crown’s case so compelling, Wright argued.

In particular, he highlighted the similar sexually explicit comments allegedly made to some of complainants by Doodnaught. Some refer to the women reaching out for his genitals while under sedation, others to warning the women to keep what happened between them secret.

“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” he told one complainant postsurgery.

Unusually for an anesthesiologist, Doodnaught visited some of his patients the day after their surgery, said Wright. The Crown alleges he was trying to find out whether they remembered the assault.

The alleged sexual assaults, said to have taken place between 2006 and 2010, became increasingly common in the final six months, Wright said.

Between August 2009 and February 2010, there were 15 complaints.

That means one in 30 of Doodnaught’s patients reported a sexual assault in those six months, Wright said.

Wright argues that Doodnaught was “emboldened” because, despite three formal complaints to the hospital and one police investigation in early 2009, no action was taken.

Responding to the defence theory that Doodnaught’s uniquely “touchy-feely” approach may have been confused for sexual touching due to the drugs, the Crown argued that other anesthesiologists at North York General have used a “tactile” approach with the same drugs in the same combinations, and none has faced complaints of sexual assault.

None of Doodnaught’s male patients have reported any sex-related memories during sedation, he added.

“The only difference (between Doodnaught and other anesthesiologists) is that Doodnaught had a propensity for sexually assaulting his female patients,” said Wright.

A verdict is expected Nov. 19.

None of Doodnaught’s male patients have reported any sex-related memories during sedation, he added.

Anesthesiologist Dr. George Doodnaught is guilty of 21 counts of sexual assault on 21 women aged 25 to 75, Justice David McCombs said Tuesday morning, 11 months after the trial began.

McCombs asked the packed courtroom to refrain from emotional displays when the verdict was read, but as he declared Doodnaught guilty, one man whispered “yes.”

Several women broke into tears.

“The evidence supporting guilt is overwhelming,” wrote McCombs in the conclusion to his 85-page judgment. He reviewed evidence from 98 witnesses over the 76 days of what he called a “long, hard, emotional” trial.

For 26 years Doodnaught was a popular and respected anesthesiologist at North York General Hospital. Often he would place his patients in a state of “conscious sedation” described as a twilight state hovering between consciousness and unconsciousness.

Between 2006 and 2010 McCombs found that Doodnaught took advantage of his position in the operating room, concealed behind a sterile screen that separates patients’ upper and lower bodies.

Hidden from the operating room doctors and nurses, Doodnaught fondled the breasts of sedated female patients, kissing their mouths and forced them to perform oral sex and masturbation, McCombs found.

All of the alleged sexual assaults but one took place at North York General.

On Tuesday, Doodnaught left the courthouse escorted by uniformed court officers. His lawyer Brian Greenspan said that Doodnaught was “disappointed” by the verdict, and said the decision will be carefully reviewed.

Doodnaught has not practiced medicine since his charges were laid, and will not practice medicine for the foreseeable future, said Greenspan.

Crown attorney David Wright told reporters that “justice has been served 21 times.” He said that the maximum sentence for one count of sexual assault is ten years, but could not say whether sentences on multiple counts could be served concurrently or consecutively.

“I am elated. I finally believe in the justice system,” said the woman who made the 2010 complaint that led to a criminal investigation. Her name is protected by a publication ban.

“I’m so proud of (the other victims who came forward) . . . I am so happy that we got the job done,” she said, following an emotional meeting with the other victims and the Crown attorneys. “We got him.”

She added, however, “it’s not until he’s taken away in handcuffs.”

In his reasons for judgment, McCombs says his decision was based on the “multitude of credible allegations” from the 21 women.

“The accused was one of roughly 25 anesthetists working at NYGH dealing with patients under conscious sedation using similar drugs in similar doses. Yet all of the complaints of sexual assault are directed at him,” wrote McCombs in his reasons for judgment.

“Viewed separately, the allegations by each complainant may not amount to proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” he wrote. “Viewed together, however, there is no rational conclusion to be reached other than that guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt on all counts.”

The defence took the position that each of the women believe they have been sexually assaulted, but that they are mistaken because of the drugs given to sedate them, McCombs wrote. The defence also suggests that Doodnaught’s “caring and attentive treatment style,” may have contributed to their mistaken beliefs.

McCombs disagreed, finding that despite their “conscious sedation” the women were “conscious and aware during significant parts of their surgeries and were able to recall these shocking and abhorrent events.”

He gave “considerable weight” to evidence from a Crown expert who testified that sexual hallucinations in patients is virtually unheard of. McCombs also found that the amnesiac effect of the drugs is reduced when “shocking and intrusive” events happen.

The hospital’s chief of anesthesiology was aware of the complaints but the senior hospital administration only learned of them after the 2010 complaint was made, wrote McCombs.

On Tuesday, Tim Rutledge, president and CEO of North York General Hospital, offered an apology to the patients assaulted and their families.

“We have repeatedly asked ourselves how this could have happened . . . That he did this in the operating room, a place of ultimate trust . . . is frankly shocking,” he said.

Serious complaints against hospital staff, like sexual assault, are now being directly reported to him. He says the hospital has also introduced software to document patient feedback, and connect similar incidents.

Doodnaught will no longer work at the hospital and faces a disciplinary hearing with the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons that could result in the loss of his licence. The hearing will be scheduled after the sentencing, and will rely on findings made during the criminal proceeding, said Kathryn Clarke, spokesperson for the College.

In meantime, while he has not be been practicing medicine, his licence is heavily restricted, says Clarke.