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Calgary neurologist who sexually abused dozens of women pleads guilty to 27 more assaults

Retired neurologist Keith Hoyte leaves the courthouse in Calgary on Jan. 6, 2020. Hoyte has admitted in court to sexually assaulting dozens of female patients over three decades. (Todd Korol/The Canadian Press - image credit)
Retired neurologist Keith Hoyte leaves the courthouse in Calgary on Jan. 6, 2020. Hoyte has admitted in court to sexually assaulting dozens of female patients over three decades. (Todd Korol/The Canadian Press - image credit)

A disgraced former Calgary neurologist who was already convicted of sexually assaulting 28 former patients has pleaded guilty to a second set of charges involving dozens more women and two underage teenagers.

On Thursday, Keith Hoyte pleaded guilty to 27 new counts of sexual assault involving 25 women and two girls, ages 16 and 17.

The assaults against the women were detailed in an agreed statement of facts and echo the first set of offences in which the victims describe being told to strip down to their underwear and then groped.

A sentencing hearing for the 74-year-old will take place at a later date.

In January 2020, Hoyte pleaded guilty and was handed a three-year sentence. He has been released from prison and is now on parole.

After he was sentenced, dozens more women came forward to police.

Provincial court Judge Allan Fradsham accepted Hoyte's plea Thursday, negotiated by prosecutor Rosalind Greenwood and defence lawyer Alain Hepner.

A publication ban protects the identities of the victims.

Decades of offending

Hoyte admitted to groping and fondling dozens of female patients between the ages of 16 and 46 from 1983 until he retired in 2013.

According to the agreed statement of facts, patients were instructed by the doctor to undress, even though they were seeking treatment for serious neurological issues like migraines, seizures, stroke and MS.

Hoyte admitted he'd then untie and lower the gowns before fondling his victims' breasts.

In 1985, Hoyte began seeing a 12-year-old patient who was suffering from seizures. She saw the doctor once or twice per year, and when she turned 16, Hoyte began fondling the girl.

At his first sentencing hearing, Hoyte's victims said they felt mortified, vulnerable and confused as the doctor groped and grabbed at their breasts, pinching and stroking their nipples.

When given the chance to address the court, the women spoke of feeling empowered to come forward knowing there were other victims.

The retired doctor first appeared on the investigators' radar in 2018 when a woman came forward to police. Investigators discovered others had previously reported the doctor over the years for similar behaviour.