A former doctor has been found guilty of sexually abusing girls at Stoke Mandeville hospital, committing a string of indecent assaults there and also raping one victim in his own home.

Shamed former consultant paediatrician Michael Salmon, now 80, was found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl in his bedroom after she had gone to him for medical help.

Reading Crown Court also heard he repeatedly indecently assaulted young female patients during unnecessary internal examinations for his own sexual "kicks."

Salmon, who specialised in children's growth disorders and neurological problems, worked at hospitals around Buckinghamshire, including Stoke Mandeville, where shamed TV star Savile targeted patients for sexual abuse.

The elderly former doctor, of Park Lane, Britford, Salisbury, was the first person to be charged under Operation Yewtree for offences at the hospital when eight women came forward in the wake of the Savile scandal, alleging rapes and indecent assaults.

The court heard he had already served time after pleading guilty in November 1990 to a string of sex assaults dating to the same time period.

After a month-long trial, jurors today found Salmon guilty of nine counts of indecent assault and two counts of rape, relating to six girls, aged 12 to 18 years at the time, between the years 1980 and 1988.

He was acquitted of one further count of rape against one victim, two of using an instrument to procure an abortion on another two of indecent assaults against a further teenager.

The jury heard how Salmon would examine young girls in a consulting room at Stoke Mandeville hospital, where their parents were either behind a screen or asked to leave the room.

He would then sexually abuse them under the pretext of carrying out examinations.

One patient, then aged 16, claimed Salmon raped her in his own bedroom after performing an abortion on her, telling her “one favour deserves another”. She claimed he then dropped her at a bus stop to make her own way home.

Salmon denied the girl had ever been to his house in Buckland, Aston Clinton, and insisted he didn't have the gynaecological experience to carry out the procedure.

While jurors found Salmon not guilty of having carried out two abortions on the teenager, who had been a regular patient of the paediatrician for some years, they found him guilty of raping her on two occasions.

Salmon had insisted he only ever carried out proper medical examinations and that the rape and abortion charges were completely fabricated.

He said his examination on child patients during their first appointment, followed techniques taught to medical students from the industry standard textbook Hutchinson's Clinical Methods, still used today.

Asked why unrelated victims would have made similar allegations against him in police interview, Salmon responded: "I think they are gold diggers.

"I can't think of any other reason why they would have done this... I'm extremely offended to hear these things. I thought that what I did was something rather better than that.

"Doctors try and cure patients of various diseases, they don't go around attacking them and I've never attacked a patient."

At another point in the interview, Salmon denied getting a 15-year-old to sit on his lap, after making her do exercises with her bra off, saying: "As we know, teenagers are unreliable witnesses, their sexual fantasies often take over, become reality and I think you better explore that. This is nothing to do with... I've never done that."

The court had heard that Salmon had previously been convicted for sexual crimes relating to the same period as the current charges.

The shamed doctor left his profession and position at Stoke Mandeville in 1987 when detectives searching his office for evidence of fraudulent activity discovered love letters from young female patients and launched a further probe into his behaviour.

Salmon pleaded guilty in November 1990 to indecent assaults on three girls, one of whom was aged just 12 years when he touched her "intimately" in his car, and was jailed for three years, serving around 18 months.

Prosecuting the latest charges, Miranda Moore QC asked the jury whether his previous conviction showed a "pattern" of abusive behaviour and why so many women - eight in this case and six from the 1990 case - with their "own lives" would make up false allegations.

Giving legal directions earlier this week, Judge Johannah Cutts had told jurors at Reading Crown Court that if they found the witnesses to be reliable and "completely independent," they could consider similarities between the different women's complaints to give strength to an individual claim.

While Salmon had no direct ties to Savile, the former DJ and presenter's name came up throughout the case as Salmon's victims were inspired to come forward in the wake of the high-profile sex abuse scandal.

An NHS trust report into Savile’s abuse at Stoke Mandeville has been delayed until the end of ongoing court proceedings such as this case.

Salmon was arrested in November 2013, when he described allegations against him as "absolute nonsense."

His barrister Sarah Jones previously said he had been "hauled over coals," when he was rebuilding his life.

She said: "He's become a scapegoat for a time when too many people died before the winds of change blew."

But Ms Moore said: "This isn't a quick fumble in a car park, this is a concerted and repeated attacks on young women.

"He appears to have a total lack of understanding that what he did was wrong.

"In his view, it's incredibly silly. His own behaviour indicates a total lack of moral compass."

She added: "This is a case about trust. That trust is left in the hands of medical professionals every day.

"These girls weren't just ill with a snuffle or a cut knee, these girls were really ill. They were vulnerable, young, entrusted and trusting.

"That's what gave him opportunity. That trust was breached by Mr Salmon."

Judge Johanna Cutts QC remanded Salmon in custody until sentencing next week.

Police today praised the bravery of the victims who came forward to report the abuse they suffered at Salmon's hands.