MELVYN HOWE

A family doctor, who used Bollywood chat-up lines and poetry to help drug virgin brides-to-be during a nightmare of rape and sexual abuse, was jailed for 11 years yesterday.

Hiding behind false names, non-existent youth and a litany of other lies, "sexual predator" Anil Tangotra, 53, portrayed himself as an irresistible Mr Right to those he met through an online Asian marriage bureau.

But no sooner had the "marriage hopefuls" - both in their early-30s - set eyes on him than they realised their mistake.

Unfortunately their reluctance to hurt his feelings proved their undoing as he drove them home, spiked their drink and food and attacked them.

One, a mature student from India, said she was treated "like a call girl" as a night of "pain and devastation" ended in losing her virginity to a man old enough to be her father.

London's Snaresbrook Crown Court heard the other, a teacher, weep as she described waking from a drug-induced coma to find the GP trying to have sex with her.

A sedative later found in her bloodstream matched one found at her attacker's home after his arrest.

Tangotra - currently serving an 18-month General Medical Council suspension but now facing permanent debarment - insisted any sexual contact had been "instigated" by them.

But those trying the GP, of The Drive, Ilford, Essex, took less than two hours to decide he was lying.

They convicted him of raping the student in April 2006, attempting to rape her and causing her to engage in sexual activity.

The doctor, who had a practice in Plaistow, east London, was also found guilty of attempting to rape the second woman in May last year, sexually assaulting her and "assaulting her by penetration".

The court then heard that in between the attacks another jury tried the separated father-of-two on the first one. While jurors acquitted him of an allegation of anal rape, they could not reach verdicts on a string of other offences.

But while on bail awaiting a retrial, he used the same online marriage bureau, Shaadi.com, to strike again.

The disgraced doctor - who is currently going through a divorce - showed no reaction as Judge William Kennedy told him: "You were a doctor of medicine, engaged in caring for the public in general practice.

"But ... you were also a sexual predator determined to have sexual intercourse with young Indian women by whatever seduction, trickery or force became necessary."