A doctor has avoided a jail sentence after adding his semen to a cup of coffee and giving it to a woman for her to drink.

Dr Nicholas Chapman denied committing the ‘most unusual’ and ‘vulgar’ sexual offence but was convicted following a trial at Gloucester Crown Court.

The 55-year-old, of Taunton, Somerset, was found guilty of attempting to engage in sexual activity without consent by a jury last month.

He added the semen to the cup of coffee he made for a woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, for sexual gratification, the court heard.

After becoming suspicious, the woman kept a sample of the drink and reported her concerns to police in September 2021.

Tests were carried out and confirmed the substance in the coffee was semen and the DNA matched that of Chapman, who worked at North Curry Health Centre in Taunton.

Judge Rupert Lowe described Chapman’s defence at trial as ‘absurd’ after he initially claimed he had been masturbating and the semen was still on his hands while making the coffee.

He told Chapman: ‘This is the most unusual example of an offence of this kind.

‘The sexual act was ingesting your semen deposited in a cup of coffee without her knowing what was in it.

‘Obviously, drinking coffee is not a sexual act but drinking or ingesting semen usually is.

‘In your case, as the jury clearly and rightly found, your purpose in attempting to get her to ingest your semen was to gain sexual gratification for yourself and that purpose rendered the act a sexual one.’

In a victim personal statement read to the court by Richard Posner, prosecuting, the woman said she was physically sick after semen was confirmed to be in the coffee sample. 

The woman was also forced to undergo testing at a sexual health clinic.

She said: ‘I should never have had to experience this horrible trauma and distress.

‘The devious and cowardly nature (of the offence) has shocked me. If this was a physical attack I may have, at least, had a chance to defend myself.

‘I didn’t deserve this and I will never understand why I was chosen. The damage Dr Chapman has caused me will stay with me for the rest of my life.’

Chapman also tried to claim he had been testing himself for a medical condition but the judge said the truth was that he had a ‘high sex drive’.

Despite describing him as an ‘intelligent, professional man, an experienced and able GP’, the judge said he committed the ‘despicable act’.

He said Chapman had been ‘telling lies to save your skin, however absurd those lies may be’ and added: ‘Your interference with her coffee was disgraceful. She didn’t drink it because she knew what was likely to be in it.’

Judge Lowe sentenced Chapman to a 12-month community order, ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £3,500 towards prosecution costs.

The judge also imposed a 10-year restraining order preventing Chapman from contacting the victim in the case, and a five-year notification requirement.

Gemma Kneebone, senior crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, described Chapman’s offending as ‘unusual and vulgar’.

She said: ‘By putting his semen into a cup of coffee in the hope that someone he had targeted would drink it, he betrayed a common gesture of kindness for his own sexual gratification.

‘His actions have had a far-reaching and profound impact on others.’

Representing Chapman, Virginia Cornwall said the incident had resulted in her client’s ‘catastrophic loss of career and reputation’.

‘He has lost the career and reputation and standing within the local community, he has lost his good character,’ she said.

‘He presents no risk to the public. He will never work with children or vulnerable people in the future. The court can be entirely confident that there will be no repeat offending.’

Ms Cornwall said that Chapman had been suspended since his arrest in 2021 and had lost his income, adding that it was likely he would be struck off by the General Medical Council.

Speaking after the case, detective sergeant Rachel Walls of Avon and Somerset Police praised the bravery of the victim in the case.

She said: ‘I hope that the sentence imposed by the court today will help her start to recover.’

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