A DOCTOR who filmed female patients while he sexually assaulted them has had his "unduly lenient" sentence increased.

Judges at the Criminal Appeal Court in London yesterday added an extra year to the jail term of Darlington GP Dr Syed Husain.

The 30-year-old, who worked at Orchard Court surgery, was jailed for three-and-a-half years at Leeds Crown Court in May after pleading guilty to five counts indecent assault, ten of making an indecent photograph of a child, and eight of possessing indecent images.

After he was jailed, families of the victims, which included two children, attacked the length of the sentence, calling it a joke.

Lord Justice Rose agreed with submissions by Richard Horwell, on behalf of the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith QC, that the sentence was "unduly lenient".

He said the aggravating features of the case included the adverse impact on the victims and the fact two were young girls and another a 74-year-old woman with cognitive impairment.

But he chose not to increase the term to five-and-a-half years, the sentence he said was appropriate at Crown Court, because Husain was facing the stress of being sentenced a second time.

Lord Justice Rose said: "Over a period of seven months, he indecently assaulted five of his female patients by conducting vaginal examinations that were either unnecessary or inappropriate.

"On occasions, those examinations were recorded by the doctor using a covert digital camera."

When police raided his surgery and home they found a camera concealed in a tissue box and 1,6000 indecent images of children downloaded from the Internet.

In mitigation, Timothy Roberts QC said the sentence had been merciful but not unduly lenient, and his client had shown remorse and was of previous good character.

Lord Justice Rose said it was a case where a deterrent must be incorporated in the sentence.

He said: "There was a high degree of culpability, because of the grave breach of trust occurring in the doctor patient relationship."

An increase on the length of Husain' licence once he is released from prison was also increased from two years to three and half years.