Jury retires in trial of Brighton GP accused of faking messages to sabotage relationships

General practitioner Javed Saumtally allegedly sent himself abusive texts and invented a police officer as part of a deception plan.

The 28-year-old is accused of making false reports to police while living in Brighton in 2018.

• READ MORE: ‘I wasn’t aware that was possible’ - GP denies faking messages to sabotage relationships

He is also accused of sending threatening messages.

Prosecutors say Saumtally was “devious”, “determined”, and “technologically adept” in spinning a web of lies.

Saumtally pleaded not guilty to a single charge of perverting the course of justice and is standing trial at Hove Crown Court.

On Friday, the jury were sent out to consider their verdict.

Saumtally’s defence barrister Janet Weeks argued there are “simply too many unanswered questions” in the case and urged jurors to find her client not guilty.

Prosecutor Jonathan Atkinson previously said the lies were part of a “concerted ploy" by Saumtally to deliberately undermine the relationships of his flatmate.

Mr Atkinson said the defendant set about “sending abusive and derogatory messages from unknown numbers” to his flatmate but also to himself, “no doubt to make it look like he was also a victim and to deflect attention away from him”.

General practitioner Javed Saumtally allegedly sent himself abusive texts and invented a police officer

Giving evidence in the witness box on Wednesday, Saumtally was asked by defence barrister Janet Weeks if he had faked the text messages.

He told the jury: “No. I wouldn’t even know how to do it.

“I wasn’t aware that was even possible.”

Mr Atkinson suggested Saumtally was jealous of his flatmate, who the defendant had previously been in a brief relationship with.

Saumtally said this was not the case, arguing the pair had been clear that he was eventually moving to Ipswich and that the relationship had an end date.

The jury previously heard that when a man his flatmate had been seeing returned from a trip to Portugal, he was met with screenshots of WhatsApp messages he had supposedly sent which suggested he had been seeing other people on the trip.

Mr Atkinson said Saumtally was “desperate” to try to prove to his flatmate that it was that man, suggesting Saumtally had “set up” the WhatsApp messages.

Saumtally denied this.

Giving his closing speech on Friday, Mr Atkinson said: “He was devious, he was determined and technologically adept”.

“No-one else stood to gain, he had the motive, he had the means throughout these incidents.

“He created false exhibits and he lied to police.”

Saumtally spent six years at Brighton and Sussex Medical School before qualifying in 2017.

He worked as a junior doctor in Brighton before going to work at a hospital in Ipswich.