A leading hypnotherapist who fondled patients during treatment sessions was today jailed for two years and three months.

Imad Al-Khawaja, 48, encouraged his victims to have an orgasm for his own perverted sexual gratification at his clinic at Brighton General Hospital.

One of his victims said: "None of it felt right but at the back of my head I kept thinking he was a doctor and it must be normal. But I felt sick and violated."

The other woman, who was suffering from multiple sclerosis, said the doctor made her feel like a "slut."

Al-Khawaja, employed by the South Downs Health NHS Trust as a consultant in rehabilitation, accused the two women of hallucinating or becoming confused after transferring their inner thoughts on to him while under a hypnotic trance.

He said two other women who said he encouraged them to touch themselves sexually during treatment sessions were lying.

But during a trial at Hove Crown Court the married father-of-four was accused of telling his victims they would forget details of what he had done in the hope of blocking their memory.

After considering its verdict for more than seven hours, the jury convicted Al-Khawaja of two counts of indecent assault. His future as a doctor will be decided by the General Medical Council.

Judge Richard Hayward told the doctor he had been convicted on compelling evidence. He said: "This was an appalling breach of trust. You abused two vulnerable woman in your charge and under your control. You did not plead guilty and you have not expressed any remorse for the distress you caused."

Robert Seabrook QC, defending, said Al-Khawaja's life was now in ruins. He said: "He is inevitably going to lose his job and be struck off as a doctor and lose everything he has built up over a professional life time."

During the ten-day trial the jury heard the doctor, of Valley Drive, Brighton, sexually assaulted the two women and encouraged them to have orgasms during therapy sessions in June last year at the Sussex Rehabilitation Centre.

Al-Khawaja, a consultant physician specialising in rehabilitation medicine, ran a unique clinic offering hypnotherapy to patients suffering from a range of neurological conditions, including those with long-term pain and stroke victims.

He told the jury he was passionate about his work and grateful to the trust for giving him the opportunity to run his clinic, which he described as a novelty within the NHS.

He said hypnosis was completely misunderstood by the public who were given a false impression by TV hypnotists.

Al-Khawaja, a Palestinian by birth and now a British national, trained as a doctor in Iraq. As well as Brighton General, he worked at hospitals in Eastbourne and Worthing and Hurstwood Park neurological centre, at Haywards Heath. He also saw patients at a private clinic in Hove.

Al-Khawaja is a fellow of the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis, editor in chief of the European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis and has been chairman of the Brighton division of the British Medical Association.

His victims said the doctor used relaxation techniques and counting down from ten to hypnotise them. But they were fully aware of what was happening.

The 47-year-old woman suffering multiple sclerosis committed suicide in December last year because of her failing quality of life.