A jury has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a doctor accused of sexually touching female patients at two Bucks hospital.

Former NHS doctor Salman Qureshi, aged 41, is charged with three counts of sexual assault. These attacks are alleged to have taken place at Wycombe Hospital and Stoke Mandeville Hospital in September 2005 and August 2017.

After hearing the evidence during a trial at Amersham Law Courts, the jury were sent out to consider their verdict, but after several days of deliberation they were unable to reach a unanimous or majority verdict on all three of the charges. Today they were dismissed by judge Geoffrey Payne.

Qureshi, of Eleanor Gardens in Aylesbury, has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

READ MORE: Teenager arrested following High Wycombe assault

A hung jury means that Qureshi is neither convicted or acquitted of the charges, and the Crown Prosecution Service must now decide whether it would like to pursue a retrial.

A hearing is due to take place on November 9 to determine what the next action will be.

During the trial, the court heard evidence given by one of Qureshi’s alleged victims, who claimed that he sexually touched her “multiple times” while she was a patient in hospital in August 2017.

In a police recorded interview which was played to the jury, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that the doctor’s actions made her “angry.”

She said: “It made me feel really confused because I didn’t know what to do.

“He was a doctor so I was not sure what to do, I knew he shouldn’t be doing it but I didn’t say anything, I just froze because I didn’t know what to do or say.

READ MORE: Thug who stamped on woman’s head while she held a baby is jailed

“I was quite angry but I didn’t want to try and show how I felt in front of my family.

“I felt ashamed and disgusting about it and for a long time I didn’t want to believe it.

“I thought that if I didn’t tell anyone that would help me to forget it, but that didn’t work.”

When he took to the stand to give evidence, Qureshi denied the allegations and asked why anyone would make such accusations against him.

He said: “I find it very disturbing and very distressing, to want to send someone to prison for the rest of their life after they saved their life.

“I thought about it and what it could be, and if it could be a real reason.

“I can’t believe that one human being would do that to another human being.”

When Qureshi was charged in July 2019, Bucks Healthcare Trust confirmed he was no longer employed by them.

Qureshi is charged with one count of sexual assault by touching and two counts of assault by penetration. He continues to deny the charges against him.

The next hearing will take place at Amersham Law Courts on November 9.

For more of the latest court and crime news from around Bucks, be sure to sign up to the FREE weekly Crime & Court Catch Up

And don’t forget to join the Bucks Crime And Court Watch group on Facebook to keep up with breaking crime news and the latest outcomes from