WHAT began as a consultation for back pain turned into a case of outrage of modesty after physiotherapist touched a patient's private parts.

Yap Soon Soon, 29, who was working with the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) in September 2005, claimed he was doing a pelvic floor examination after the patient complained of stress incontinence.

The woman accused him of molesting her, saying that she had neither made that complaint nor agreed to the procedure, reported The New Paper on Wednesday.

After a 20-day trial on Tuesday, District Judge Ong Chin Rhu found Yap, who has a diploma and a degree in physiotherapy, guilty of outrage of modesty.

TNP said the woman was referred by her doctor, Dr Karen Ong, to the SGH's physiotherapy department with a lower back problem.

At about 2 pm on Sept 9 2005, Yap attended to the married woman at a curtained cubicle. He then taught her to do exercises on the chair and on the bed to strengthen her muscles.

When Yap asked her if she had 'sex problems,' she said she seldom had sex because of her back pain, according to the TNP report.

He then got a towel and asked her if she would mind if she put his gloved fingers 'inside' to check her 'muscles.'

According to TNP, he asked her to lower her jeans and covered her abdomen with a towel.

The woman told the court that she suddenly felt his finger in her private parts and was asked to contract her muscles.

She said she was shocked as she had thought 'inside' meant in her jeans, to check her back muscles.

With his finger still in her private parts, he told her to practise the movement at home to strengthen the 'contraction muscle.'

The woman told the court that she did not stop Yap as she was 'confused' and was unsure that confronting him would be the right thing to do.

She later told her husband and a woman colleague who urged her to ask her doctor, said TNP.

She saw Dr Karen Ong who called Yap's superior, the then-head of the physiotherapy department.

The woman said she waited till Sept 13 to make a police report as she did not want to wrongly accuse Yap.

Meanwhile, Yap was hauled up before an inquiry board at SGH and was given a written warning for violating procedures.

In his defence, Yap said he did the examination without any intention of molest. He will be sentenced on May 13.