A disgraced doctor has tearfully apologised for taking intimate photos of his patients and colleagues at a major regional hospital, saying he abused their trust and breached an oath to do no harm.
Nicholas Chia Wei Chu, 28, broke down in court on Wednesday after hearing of the torment he caused a 14-year-old patient, whose genitals he secretly photographed at Orange Health Service in central-western NSW.
"I regret everything I did to you," Chu said quietly, looking at the victim's family in the NSW District Court sitting in Orange.
"I violated you and I abused my position of trust. I'm so sorry."
Chu has pleaded guilty to a string of charges related to images and videos of 11 patients taken at the hospital in 2022 and 2023, along with videos of colleagues who he secretly filmed getting changed.
He also admitted charges related to hundreds of videos of three friends, who he covertly filmed by propping up his mobile phone in bathrooms and bedrooms in Orange and Sydney.
Among his admissions was one count of producing child abuse material, related to 21 intimate photographs of the 14-year-old.
The child, who cannot be identified, went to the emergency department in excruciating pain in late October 2022.
Chu took photographs of the child's genitals during an ultrasound ahead of emergency surgery.
The teenager's mother read a victim impact statement on the child's behalf, saying patients should have been able to trust Chu, especially those who were young and vulnerable.
"I was a child," the mother said, her voice occasionally cracking with emotion as she read the document.
"My biggest fear is my peers finding out I was a victim - I might get bullied or treated differently and I don't want that.
"I don't want people to know. It feels shameful."
The child said uncertainty about whether the images would be shared was also a constant source of stress.
Chu, who was working in his first job as a junior medical officer, told several patients he needed to take photographs for medical purposes to show his supervisors, according to agreed facts tendered to the court.
He also photographed patients who were sedated or unconscious.
But the head of the emergency department told detectives he never asked Chu to take photographs and never saw any images.
Chu's barrister Arjun Chhabra told the court his client's crimes were "heinous" and "unforgivable", and the former doctor was the first to admit that.
Through extensive mental health treatment, Chu had come to understand he was irrationally linking sexual gratification with emotional intimacy, Mr Chhabra said.
Chu had been diagnosed as a voyeur and had a pornography addiction, which "spiralled out of control", the court was told.
"There was a constant pursuit of attachment and constant fear of abandonment," Mr Chhabra said.
Chu, who graduated from the University of NSW in 2021, has been suspended from practising and now works as a sweeper at Junee prison.
He will be sentenced in February.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
Lifeline 13 11 14
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)
