A FAMILY doctor has denied carrying out a series of sex assaults on patients at his North-East surgery.

Dr Syed Amjad Husain appeared at Durham Crown Court yesterday where he denied 26 indictments.

The 29-year-old, of Orchard Court Surgery, Darlington, is accused of indecently assaulting three women, four children and a teenage girl.

The assaults are said to have taken place between October 2001 and last month.

One of the charges relates to an alleged indecent assault on a woman who police have been unable to identify.

Dr Husain denied two charges of taking indecent photographs of children and eight charges of possessing indecent photographs of children.

He also denied eight counts of making an indecent photograph of a child.

The GP spoke only to confirm his name and to enter his pleas.

Ian West, prosecuting, said some of the charges related to incidents that had happened in the Orchard Road surgery.

The doctor, who has been in custody since his arrest, is alleged to have indecently assaulted five girls aged four, seven, nine, ten and 15.

Judge David Bryant made an order preventing the Press reporting some aspects of the hearing.

Dr Husain was told he had been granted bail subject to conditions set out by Judge Richard Lowden last Friday.

Once the conditions have been met he will be released from custody, Judge Bryant told the court.

The conditions include Dr Husain, whose home is in Darlington, living at an approved address, as directed by the probation service, and reporting to Middlesbrough police station twice a week.

He is also forbidden from entering Darlington and denied access to any computer linked to the Internet.

The doctor must also not contact witnesses in the case.

A surety, for an undisclosed sum, has also had to be lodged with the court by the doctor's family.

Three previous applications for bail made on Dr Husain's behalf were rejected, two by magistrates at Peterlee, County Durham, and one by a judge at Durham Crown Court.

The case was adjourned until a later date.