AN NHS dentist performed a sex act over a patient in his chair after she had been anaesthetised, a court was told yesterday.

The 32-year-old was referred to Lee Gaukrodger for a tooth extraction and chose to have a general anaesthetic.

Newcastle Crown Court was told that while she was unconscious, Gaukrodger performed a sex act.

When she came round from the anaesthetic, she found her hair was wet.

The court was told the fluid was semen.

The incident happened at the surgery in Flatt Court, South Shields, South Tyneside, when a dental nurse had left the room.

Gaukrodger, born in South Africa, was charged with two counts of sexual assault and has been on bail since his arrest.

Yesterday, his barrister, Paul Caulfield, told the court: "This defendant was a dental surgeon who candidly has admitted some fairly outrageous behaviour directed to a patient of his who was immobilised by anaesthetic.

"The masturbation complained of is accepted and the ejaculation obviously is a natural result of that. But the defendant was to say in interview the depositing of the semen upon the patient was not intentional, it was reckless."

Gaukrodger did not enter a formal guilty plea at yesterday's hearing because the court heard prosecutors were having difficulty finding the appropriate charge.

Under new legislation, for him to be guilty of an indecent assault, it must include an element of touching and the touching must be deliberate.

Mr Caulfield said the difficulty lay in whether depositing bodily fluids constituted touching. He said: "It is simply a question of identifying the correct offence." He said Gaukrodger rejected the victim's claims he groped her breasts during the incident.

The case was adjourned until November 9 so lawyers can review the charge.

Gaukrodger was granted bail, but must not seek employment as a dentist and has surrendered his passport.

He has been banned from entering South Tyneside, must report regularly to a police station, must not contact prosecution witnesses, speak to anyone from the practice and must live at his home in Kingsley Avenue, Gosforth, Newcastle