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Case summary: A psychiatrist at Western University's student health service sexually abused young female patients in the 1980s, then simply moved his practice to his own basement and kept practising for another two decades — surviving four separate CPSO discipline hearings before finally being criminally convicted and stripped of his licence, by which point he'd amassed roughly 10,000 photos and videos of nude patients.

Dr. Stanley Dobrowolski: Western University's Psychiatrist, Four CPSO Hearings, and a Licence That Took Three Decades to Revoke

Dr. Stanley Thomas Dobrowolski worked as a psychiatrist at the University of Western Ontario's (Western University) Student Health Services from 1985 to 1994, treating female students, including for psychological issues. During this period, complaints emerged about inappropriate sexual conduct with patients under his care; one patient later alleged he asked inappropriate sexual questions during sessions and had her remove her shirt and bra for a physical exam she believed was medically unnecessary. Rather than face the allegations at Western, Dobrowolski resigned from the university and resumed practising out of the basement office of his home in London, Ontario — continuing to treat patients, including some who had been his students.

Four Trips Before the College, No Revocation

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) first disciplined Dobrowolski in 1995, after he admitted to having sexual intercourse with a patient. A hearing panel found the sexual contact occurred after the doctor-patient relationship had formally ended and declined to find the boundary violation serious enough to constitute incompetence; his certificate was suspended for 12 months, nine of which were themselves suspended if he met certain conditions. He appeared before the College again later in 1995, and once more in 1999, after university students alleged that between 1987 and 1991 he had touched them inappropriately and performed unnecessary breast examinations. He was suspended again, and continued practising from his London basement office. A fourth CPSO hearing followed in 2004.

In October 2012, the College suspended Dobrowolski's licence on an interim basis while it investigated a patient's allegations that included inappropriate sexual touching, masturbation of the patient, purchasing lingerie for her to wear, taking sexual photographs, shaving the patient, and offering to undress during appointments. That same month, London police arrested him on charges of sexual assault and voyeurism after discovering he had been photographing and secretly videotaping nude patients during physical exams, under the pretext of tracking moles for cancer screening — accumulating a collection of roughly 10,000 images and videos, some of patients as young as 17.

Conviction and a Long-Delayed Revocation

In May 2014, the Ontario Court of Justice convicted Dobrowolski on 16 counts of sexual assault, one count of voyeurism involving nine women, and one count of breaching a court-ordered condition by continuing to conduct physical exams on 12 women. The court found he had carried out unnecessary physical examinations, including "cancer screenings" that involved touching patients' breasts and vaginas. He was sentenced to four years in a federal penitentiary. On November 30, 2015 — while he was already in prison — a CPSO discipline panel finally revoked his certificate of registration, more than 30 years after complaints about his conduct first surfaced, concluding that "society will be for the better if Dr. Dobrowolski never practises again." College counsel described him as having shown himself to be "ungovernable."

In early 2016, following a $2.85-million civil lawsuit filed by a former patient over her treatment in the late 1980s, Western University issued a formal public apology, acknowledging "any role that Western may have played" in the trauma suffered by his victims and stating it was continuing to investigate the circumstances of his tenure there. At least one victim publicly called the apology "appallingly inadequate," noting the university had known of complaints for decades before acting.

Timeline

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