French doctor unaware Viagra was for paedophile-paper

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

PARIS, Aug 21 (Reuters) A French prison doctor accused of prescribing Viagra to a paedophile suspected of raping a child after his release said he did not know the man was a sex offender, a newspaper reported today.

Francis Evrard, a 61-year-old repeat offender who spent 18 years in prison for raping children before being freed on July 2, snatched a five year-old boy from a street in the northern town of Roubaix last Wednesday, police say.

The pair were discovered later that day partly clothed in a garage used by Evrard. He said he had been prescribed the anti-impotence drug while in prison, and officers found a packet of Viagra in his pocket.

French daily Le Parisien published what it said was an interview with the doctor Evrard says prescribed him the pills.

''I did not know at all whom I was dealing with. If I had, I would no doubt have acted differently,'' the unnamed doctor told the newspaper, adding that he had no knowledge of the man's criminal record, and had not asked to see it.

''I hardly ever ask to see the criminal file of inmates I see in consultations. In almost 15 years of work in prison, I have only done so once. We don't need that information to treat patients,'' he added.

The case has won widespread media coverage and prompted President Nicolas Sarkozy to pledge that paedophiles would in future be assessed by doctors and be treated in hospitals if they posed a threat at the end of their sentence.

''If it is indeed my prescription, yes, I have regrets,'' the doctor said, adding that he was one of two doctors dealing part-time with 820 inmates.

Prescribing Viagra to inmates was unusual but not unheard of, the doctor said.

''It can happen. You can be dealing with a prisoner who will be reunited with his wife and who is afraid he won't be up to the task.

There are inmates who smoke or who suffer from high blood pressure who have impotence problems,'' he said.

Reuters LPB GC1620

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