Former MGH medical assistant sentenced for sexually aggressive patients

A former medical assistant was sentenced to nine or 12 years of state prison for having sexually attacked four male patients in a Massachusetts General Hospital Assistance Center, announced the District Prosecutor’s Office of the County of Suffolk on Friday.

Damien Knighton, 41, from East Boston, was declared guilty At the beginning of this month for six counts of indecent aggression and battery on a person over the age of 14. Knighton was arrested in January 2023 after a patient reported that a medical assistant at the Massachusetts General Hospital Bay Health Center in Commonwealth Avenue had attacked him sexually. Following that relationship, others moved forward with similar statements that Knight had led unauthorized genital and rectal exams after their doctors had seen them.

Judge Debra Flago-Lee said that four of the accusations were “of the most striking character” because they concerned the penetration of the victims.

“The defendant used his position and status to facilitate the commission of crimes. The use of his position as a medical assistant to commit these crimes caused additional emotional and psychic pain to the victims. They trusted the accused and that the trust was abused, “said Flago-Lee.

One of the victims read a declaration of impact in court and two other impact statements were read by the district attorney Rita Claire Muse.

“The last two years have put to the test to me both personally and professionally,” said one of the victims in court. “The level of embarrassment, shame, anger and sense of guilt I have heard are at a level that I would never have thought I could hear. I am a very private person and the fact that I had to get up here and show my face and admit that this happened was the most difficult thing I ever had to do in my life. ”

After listening to the impact statements on the victim, Flast over-Lee said: “I will tell you three things. You are brave, shame is not yours. You were missed, it was lying to you, you don’t deserve what happened to you. And third, you will heal with love and support. “

“The jury listened to the voices and stories of these victims and returned the right verdict and the Judge Flagori-Lee today sent a message of understanding and compassionate to the victims while distributing an appropriate penalty to the accused. I thank these victims for their courage to come forward with what happened to them, “said the District Prosecutor of Suffolk Kevin Hayden.

Knighton’s sentence will be followed by three years of freedom of freedom of supervised and life by the Massachusetts medical field, according to the DA DA. He must also register at the Massachusetts Sex Offndender Registry Board.