Two women choked and raped by the same NHS surgeon months apart
Two women choked and raped by the same NHS surgeon months apart
(Warning: Distressing content) The man accessed the medical patient records of around 40 females.
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Add us as preferred source By Laura Zilincanova 07:01, Fri, Jun 26, 2026 Updated: 07:15, Fri, Jun 26, 2026 
A trainee NHS surgeon who raped and choked two women he met through social media has been jailed for 14 years after being convicted at a retrial. Salil Korambayil, 34, of Redhill, Surrey, was found guilty of three counts of rape following a six-day retrial at Truro Crown Court. He had previously been convicted of the same offences in 2023, but those convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal, which ordered a fresh trial.
Jurors heard that Korambayil attacked the women in separate incidents just months apart after gaining their trust online. One rape took place in North Devon in August 2020, while the other two offences against a second victim occurred in Cornwall in March 2021. Prosecutor Bill Baker KC described Korambayil as a "sexual predator" who had "tricked" his way into the women's "confidence, homes and raped them".
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He told the court: "Both independently said he choked them and vaginally raped them."
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Korambayil had worked as a trainee colorectal and vascular surgeon in hospitals in Barnstaple and Truro between 2016 and 2021. Judge Simon Carr sentenced him to seven years for each victim, to run consecutively, meaning he will serve a total of 14 years in prison. He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for life, BBC reports.
The court heard Korambayil first contacted one victim on Facebook after asking if she recognised him from the hospital where he worked. The pair met and initially had consensual sex, but the woman later told him she regretted it and wanted to get to know him better before seeing him again.
Weeks later, after arranging another visit to her flat, she went to change her clothes before finding Korambayil waiting in her bedroom. Jurors heard he held her by the throat on the edge of the bed before raping her.
Korambayil claimed the sex had been consensual and alleged the woman had fabricated the allegation because he would not help her financially.
The woman did not immediately report the attack. When asked why during the trial, she said: "He was a surgeon, I was a woman with mental health problems, who would believe me?"
The second victim first met Korambayil after advertising a room to rent online. Although he never rented it, he later contacted her repeatedly, sending persistent messages despite her attempts to brush him off.
On the night of the attack, he brought food to her flat after she agreed he could visit briefly. The woman told the court she had been drinking wine beforehand but soon began feeling unusually unwell.
Bill Baker KC said: "Her head started dropping, she started feeling woozy, she felt like she had been drugged, he held her face and kissed her and spat in her mouth."
The prosecutor said she asked Korambayil to leave, but instead he persuaded her to let him sleep on the sofa because he was due at work early the next morning.
When she later went to bed, she found him already there, bare-chested. The jury heard she woke to him removing her underwear before he pinned her down, choked her and raped her twice.
The woman later became suspicious about how Korambayil had obtained her phone number and asked Royal Cornwall Hospital to check whether anyone had accessed her medical records.
Hospital IT staff discovered Korambayil had unlawfully accessed not only her records but those of around 40 other people, most of them women aged between their 20s and 40s, including patients.
Speaking during the trial, the woman said: "I thought a surgeon would never do anything like that, it gave me concrete evidence that a surgeon could be a bad person, and it gave me the confidence to report him."
Korambayil had previously admitted computer misuse offences over the illegal access to NHS records and received two concurrent 12-month prison sentences.
In evidence, he claimed he looked up information about women because it made him feel "comfortable".
"I wanted to know something about my friends and colleagues so that I felt safe, and it made me trust them a bit more," he told the court.
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In a victim impact statement read during sentencing, one of the women described the devastating impact of having to endure a second trial after Korambayil successfully appealed his original convictions.
She said: "The appeal and retrial forced me back into the darkest period of my life.
"The distress I described in my first statement has not been left in the past. It has been reopened, revisited and prolonged, most acutely through the two and a half hours of detailed, relentless and sexually graphic cross examination, in front of a room full of strangers."
She added: "I feel emotionally hollowed by the relentlessly brutal nature of these proceedings and the knowledge that a crime committed in a matter of hours has now consumed more than five years of my life."
Addressing Korambayil directly, she said: "Although I will likely still be living with the consequences of your actions, long after your sentence has ended, I am grateful that I have been afforded a level of justice that many do not."
Detective Inspector Daniel Massey, who led the investigation under Operation Humilis, praised both women for their resilience.
He said, "I want to praise the victims for having to go through the trial process a second time. I can only imagine the impact this has had.
"Their courage, resilience and perseverance is a testament to who they are. I am extremely grateful for their continued positive engagement over the past five years."
Badenoch blasts 'moaning' female Labour MPs over Burnham jobs 'quota'
Kemi Badenoch has told Labour women to earn a job in Andy Burnham's Cabinet instead of demanding they are handed jobs because of their gender.
The Tory leader lashed out today amid reports that female MPs are demanding the de-facto new prime minister introduce a 50:50 gender split 'quota' in his government.
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister also complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts.
But in a scathing article in the Times today Mrs Badenoch told them to 'stop moaning' and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'.
'There are many, many reasons why you shouldn't have any Milibands in the cabinet,' she said.
'But complaining that the boys haven't given them the right jobs or that the boys are taking all the jobs, just shows that Labour's women still don't get it.'
The idea of quotas was also attacked by Baroness Jacqui Smith, Labour's Skills Minister.
Asked by Times Radio if Mr Burnham should reserve jobs for women, she said: 'No, I think what Andy Burnham should be doing is building the very best team around him to change this country.'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband (above, right, in 2010) is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts
But Mrs Badenoch told them to pipe down and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party and seen by the BBC has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs after he succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.
'We are asking you to demonstrate this change from day one and address the toxicity and misogyny within our own party and government,' it said.
Labour has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had three, and Mrs Badenoch urged the government to follow its meritocratic example.
'If you run a meritocracy, then you do not have to worry about jobs for the boys,' she wrote.
'Every woman who is a Conservative MP, every woman who has ever won the leadership, has had to fight to get where she is.
'By contrast, Labour women are demanding guarantees from Burnham. But the truth is he doesn't have to give any guarantees.
'If none of Labour's women are prepared to get their hands dirty and challenge him for the leadership, their demands are toothless.'
'In fact, it's quite revealing that the women's parliamentary Labour Party has written to Burnham asking him to commit himself to at least 50 per cent female ministers.
'This has nothing to do with meritocracy. It is yet more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country.'
