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PANDEMONIUM:
The wife of convicted rapist Dr Rafid Alramadan had to be led by police from Wagga District Court yesterday amid scenes of uproar during which her husband yelled accusations of racism and religious bias against the judge and she wailed her protests in the courtroom before fainting.Photo: Picture: Les Smith
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Chaos in Wagga court as doctor blames racism for his guilty verdict There were wild scenes in Wagga District Court yesterday after Dr Rafid Alramadan was found guilty of drugging, raping and indecently assaulting one of his female patients.
The jury retired to consider their verdict at 12.35pm and by 4.06pm had reached the unanimous conclusion that the Grenfell doctor was guilty of giving the woman Valium with the intent to sedate and then sexually assault her.
The foreman, representing the nine women and three men of the jury, read out a guilty verdict on all three charges the doctor was facing and then Alramadan was moved into the dock.
Alramadan who had silently accepted the verdict, then made an outburst from the dock accusing Judge Anthony Puckeridge and the jury of racism and blamed his conviction not on his guilt but on their hatred of Muslims.
“This is because I am a Muslim. This is because I am from overseas. They go overseas to kill people, they want to kill me and my children. This is racism,” Alramadan yelled from the dock.
Alramadan’s wife then entered the courtroom for the first time in the 12-day trial, wailing “No, no. It’s not fair.” She pushed her way into the dock to join her husband and then clung to him.
Officers from the Department of Corrective Services had to physically separate the pair and took Alramadan out of the court and into custody.
Judge Puckeridge called for a short adjournment while order was restored to his court.
Mrs Alramadan refused to leave the courtroom and three police officers from the adjacent Wagga Police Station were called in to escort her from the courtroom.
She continued to protest and told police that it was their fault that her husband was now locked up. “I have nobody but him,” the greatly distressed Mrs Alramadan said.
An ambulance was called to treat Mrs Alramadan after she fainted, possibly from the grief of knowing her husband could spend the next 25 years in jail, the maximum sentence for aggravated sexual assault.
Alramadan was brought back into the court to hear he would be sentenced on December 14. He again addressed the court from the dock and repeated his claim he would not have been found guilty had he not been Iraqi and Muslim.
“Why do you hate the Muslim people all over the world … I am 200 per cent not guilty. It is because I am a Muslim, that is all,” he said.
Alramadan was found guilty of having given his victim an injection of Valium and then having sexual intercourse without her consent on December 8, 2005.
The assault was aggravated as he was her treating doctor at the time and he was also found guilty of indecently assaulting her by touching her body in a sexual manner without her consent.
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