Gynaecologist accused of sexually abusing over 200 patients jailed for 20 years

A gynaecologist who sexually abused vulnerable and trusting patients for over two decades at prestigious New York hospitals cried before he was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison by a federal judge who called his crimes unprecedented.

The sentence for Robert Hadden, 64, was a measure of vindication for hundreds of former patients who accused the doctor of molesting them during examinations but saw an earlier prosecution end with a plea bargain that spared him from jail.

Given his chance to speak om Tuesday, Hadden stood with his hands folded before him to say that there was “much I’d like to say” but that he had been advised by his lawyers to keep his statement brief.

“I’m very sorry for all the pain that I have caused,” a sobbing Hadden said before dropping his head down as he sat again. He then took off his glasses and wiped tears from his eyes.

In statements over the past two days, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said the case was like none he’d seen before and involved “outrageous, horrific, beyond extraordinary, depraved sexual abuse.” He noted that at least 245 women Hadden treated said they were abused.

The federal trial involved a smaller number of victims. Hadden was convicted of four counts of enticing women to cross state lines so he could sexually abuse them.

Nine victims testified at the trial, describing how Hadden molested them during gynecology treatments, starting in the late 1980s, at prominent hospitals, including Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Allegations of misconduct during examinations first surfaced in 2012. Hadden was indicted on state charges in 2014 as women — 19 and counting — kept coming forward. But in 2016, the office of the Manhattan district attorney at the time, Cyrus Vance Jr., allowed Hadden to plead guilty to two low-level felonies and a misdemeanor in a deal that required him to give up his medical license but didn't require jail time and kept him out of the state's sex offender registry.

Some of the women who had gone to state prosecutors were outraged, but their stories didn't start receiving public attention until the #MeToo movement began gaining steam in 2017.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan got a grand jury indictment against Hadden in 2020, charges based on the fact that some patients at his New York offices had come into the city from suburbs in other states. He was convicted in January.

Nine victims spoke at the first stage of Hadden sentencing hearing last month. Numerous victims attended the proceeding on Monday and Tuesday but were not invited to speak again.

“Robert Hadden is a sexual predator disguised in a white coat,” one woman, who spoke under the pseudonym Emily Anderson, told Berman last month.

According to trial testimony, Hadden benefited from the prestige of the hospitals where he worked as he groomed his patients in a private office decorated with pictures of his children as he conversed with them about their personal lives.

But once he had isolated them after a chaperone or nurse left the treatment room, he fondled and probed them with gloveless fingers and sometimes orally.

The judge noted that many patients were particularly vulnerable because they were pregnant, had physical problems, or had never been to another gynecologist and trusted that Hadden was behaving properly.