Aubrey Levin is on trial in Canada for sexually assaulting 10 patients between 1999 and 2010. He is claiming the prolonged fondling of his patients’ genitals was a technique he learned in South Africa to treat erectile dysfunction

Levin known locally as “Dr Shock” for his use of electroshock therapy during apartheid, told Detective David Burke on March 23, 2010, that he used bulbocavernosus reflex testing to treat patients for erectile dysfunction. He said that it was a technique he had learnt in the 1960’s in South Africa.

When I worked in South Africa we did just about everything . . . Some would say it was the, it was the land of medical cowboys. Because we used to learn to do everything.

A spy video taken by one of his patients was played in court this week, and it shows Levin fondling and massaging a 38-year-old man’s genitals for more than 14 minutes. After the patient went to police with the video, several other men saw news reports and registered complaints.

According to Wikipedia, bulbocavernosus reflex testing “involves monitoring anal sphincter contraction in response to squeezing the glans penis”. It is used for assessing spinal cord injuries as well as diagnosing erectile dysfunction. It seems though, that the massaging of a man’s penis for 14 minutes is just too long for this procedure. In legal terms, the court must decide whether the doctor was administering BVR, or just wanking him off.

Levin told the detective that BVR testing normally doesn’t take very long, but if it doesn’t work it can take that long. However, a specialist testified in court that this was not the case.

Dr. Ethan Grober, a specialist in male sexual dysfunction and infertility, testified the procedure Levin claims he was doing does not involve lengthy massaging of a man’s genitals to get an erection. Instead, it is a brief physical check, he said.

This was not a simple elicitation of reflex but a long repeated fondling or massage of the penis,

Grober told the Crown prosecutor.

Levin was the chief psychiatrist at the Voortrekkerhoogte military hospital during the 1970’s, during which time he was the attending psychiatrist at Greefswald, an isolated detention barracks where harsh conditions were supposed to ‘cure’ conscripts of supposed ‘vices’ and conscientious objections. He rose to notoriety for his work on an aversion therapy medical program which attempted to cure gays and lesbians of homosexuality.

Levin left South Africa for Canada in the mid-90’s and was licensed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan, Canada in 1995, and then by Alberta’s college in 1998

[Source: Calgary Herald, Wikipedia]