DISGRACED HAVANT GP STRUCK OFF: Predator Doctor Erased After Abuse of Vulnerable Women

A disgraced former Havant GP has been struck off the medical register after a tribunal ruled his abuse of female patients was predatory, repeated and an appalling breach of trust.

Mohan Babu, who worked in the Havant area and was previously reported as living in Emsworth, was jailed for three-and-a-half years in April 2024 after being found guilty at Portsmouth Crown Court of four sexual assaults on three women.

Now the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service has imposed the professional punishment that many residents would have expected: erasure from the register, with an immediate ban. In plain English, he can no longer practise medicine in the UK.

The latest ruling was reported by the BBC on 19 May, with the tribunal concluding that Babu's behaviour was "predatory, repeated, persistent and an abuse of his professional position". Portsmouth reporting also said the erasure means he is removed from the medical register and will no longer be able to practise medicine.

## A DOCTOR'S TRUST BETRAYED

This is the sort of case that hits a town hard because a GP surgery is supposed to be one of the safest rooms in public life. Patients arrive anxious, ill, embarrassed or frightened. They hand over trust because the system depends on it.

Babu did the opposite of what that trust demands. Prosecutors previously said he targeted women who were significantly vulnerable, physically and emotionally. One victim was a cancer patient who has since died. Her brother told the court Babu had "desecrated her final months".

Other victim impact accounts were equally devastating. One woman said the assault had "ruined my life". Another described a dark, downward decline after what happened.

Those words matter more than any professional title he once held.

## HAVANT AND EMSWORTH LINKS

The abuse took place between September 2019 and July 2021 while Babu was working as a GP in the Havant area. Portsmouth reporting identified Staunton Surgery in Civic Centre Road, Havant, as the surgery where he was working at the time of the incidents, and noted that he was living in Emsworth.

For local patients, that geography is uncomfortable because it brings the story out of distant court language and back into familiar streets, surgeries and waiting rooms.

It is important to be clear: this is not a story about blaming local NHS staff, reception teams or other doctors. It is a story about one convicted offender abusing a position of power, and about the professional system finally closing the door on any return to practice.

## WHAT THE COURT HEARD

At the 2024 sentencing, the BBC reported that Babu had touched and exposed himself to female patients. The court heard he exposed himself to one woman and told her she had to touch him because he was helping her. He also kissed and touched another patient, saying: "I'm not having a bad day."

Judge James Newton-Price KC said he did not accept a defence claim that Babu's autism diagnosis had affected his behaviour. The judge told him: "You chose victims that were vulnerable and less likely to complain."

Babu was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and placed on the sex offenders register for life.

## WHY STRIKING OFF MATTERS

A prison sentence punishes criminal behaviour. Being struck off answers a separate question: should this person ever be trusted with patients again?

The tribunal's answer is now no.

That matters for public confidence. Patients need to know that a conviction for this kind of abuse does not simply sit in the past while a doctor waits for a route back into practice. Erasure is the strongest professional sanction and is designed to protect the public and maintain trust in the profession.

The fact Babu did not attend the MPTS hearing, according to the BBC, does not soften the outcome. The tribunal still considered the case and imposed an immediate ban.

## A LOCAL WARNING, NOT JUST A LOCAL SCANDAL

The headline is grim, but there is a wider point for Havant, Leigh Park, Emsworth and every community using local health services: vulnerable patients must be believed, protected and given routes to report concerns safely.

Many victims of abuse by professionals feel trapped by the authority of the person in front of them. That is why clear chaperone policies, complaints routes, safeguarding procedures and listening cultures are not box-ticking exercises. They are the lines of defence between trust and exploitation.

Babu's victims were failed by a man who used the status of doctor as cover for abuse. The court punished him. The tribunal has now removed him from the profession.

For the women he harmed, no ruling can undo what happened. But for Havant patients, the message from this final professional sanction is at least clear: he is out, and he is not coming back as a doctor.