A GOLD COAST paediatrician who hogtied a seven-year-old patient has been acquitted of assaulting the boy on appeal.
Neville Goodwin Davis was last year found guilty in Southport Magistrates Court of assaulting the child during an October 2012 consultation during which he tied the boy up with rope.
Dr Davis specialised in behavioural conditions and had been consulted by the boy's mother to see if he had Asperger Syndrome.
He said he initially tied the boy to a chair to occupy him so he could talk to the mother
When the child broke loose Dr Davis tied his wrists and ankles behind his back, allegedly with the mother and child's consent, but denied sitting on him.
In cross-examination at trial, Dr Davis admitted he had never tied up a patient before and accepted it was inappropriate.
The boy's mother had claimed Dr Davis had passed the rope around her son's neck, sat on him laughing and threatened to flush the child's head down the toilet.
On Friday the Court of Appeal acquitted Dr Davis of one count of common assault after it found the boy's evidence was grossly unreliable and inconsistent with the mother's self-contradictory testimony.
It also found Dr Davis had not been given the opportunity in cross-examination to respond to allegations he'd reconstructed his evidence to suit his own purposes.