David has written to the Ministry of Health's Permanent Secretary to take disciplinary action against Utlwanang for his behaviour that led to the alleged assault. The ex-murder-accused lawyer is in the headlines again after a case of assault was laid against him at the Central Police Station in Gaborone after he allegedly attacked a nurse at Extension II clinic who had attended his daughter on November 7, 2024.
The matter is said to have been handed to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for assessment and possible prosecution. Through his attorney Ofentse Khumomotse in a letter dated November 21, 2024, David alleges the nurse's conduct was predatory and far removed from the ethos of the office he holds. Narrating what transpired on the day, Khumomotse says David had taken his 18-year-old daughter to the health facility following a minor car accident. He says upon arrival, the daughter was attended by a male nurse who introduced himself as 'Dr Thapelo Utlwanang'. David's lawyer states in the letter that the man then went inside a room with the young girl and locked the door. It is said that the nurse then asked the daughter to lie down on the bed and pull up her top exposing her torso.
Khumomotse further says that the nurse then advised the young girl that he was going to scan her with his phone, at which point he started moving it up and down her torso. It is said that at that moment there was a knock on the door, and it is said that the said nurse panicked, putting the phone back in his pocket and remaining still. It is further alleged that the nurse didn't open the door but talked to the person who was knocking through the door telling them he would be with them in a moment. It is said he then proceeded and applied gel on the young girl's abdomen which was followed by what the girl described as unsolicited massage. When he was done, he then advised the patient that he was going to refer her to another facility as their scanning machines were out of order and proceeded to fill out a referral slip. He then wrote his number on a piece of paper and handed it to her advising her to keep in touch and keep him abreast of further developments.
It is said the young girl then narrated to her father what had transpired, particularly seeking to confirm if a cellphone could be used to scan a person's body. Hearing his daughter's story, and being convinced that his daughter had been taken advantage of and inappropriately handled by the male 'doctor', it is said that David then went back to the clinic to confront the nurse. A brawl ensued and the two ended up at the Central Police Station. It is said that when narrating the story to the police, the nurse said he had locked the room because he needed privacy with the patient and that he had used gel to palpitate the abdomen. He, however, denied that he had used his cellphone to scan her but explained that he used it to conduct a respiratory rate observation.
He further confirmed having written his number on a piece of paper and handing it to the patient to which he explained that he wanted her to send him pictures of the scan. He also clarified that he was actually not a doctor but a nurse and that there was a nurse in attendance at the facility at the time he had taken it upon himself to examine the young girl. The nurse was asked to open his photo gallery on his mobile phone to ascertain if there were no pictures of the girl, pictures of other patients were found on his phone and he explained that he took pictures of patients' injuries to preserve evidence for the police. "It is our position that our client was indecently handled by nurse Thapelo Utlwanang during her (daughter's) visit and this position is premised on the following: Khumomotse says it is shocking a male nurse would have seen it appropriate to lock himself in a room with an 18-year-old female patient without a chaperon. "What is even baffling is that there was nothing about this patient that could have required any evasive procedure to necessitate this desperate need for privacy by the nurse so much so that he couldn't even entertain someone knocking on the door. The nurse claiming to be conducting a scan on our client using a phone was highly inappropriate. Although he denies that, this is what he had told the patient that he was doing and that instead, he was using the phone to calculate her respiratory rate doesn't make sense," Khumomotse stated in the letter.
Moreover, Khumomotse argues that since there was a medical doctor at the time, having triaged the patient, the procedure dictates that he should have referred her to the doctor for further examination. "For him to have usurped this responsibility for himself, particularly in the general context of his behaviour, was clearly in keeping with his ultimate intention to indecently interact with the patient. "Our client went to the government medical facility with the promise of safety, respect comfort and dignity. However, on this day, none of these were given to her by the nurse in question. Instead, she was sexually compromised and her dignity affronted by a person who owes her a duty of protection and care," he stated.
