A retired Sydney dentist has pleaded guilty to assaulting patients after giving them nitrous oxide or laughing, gas.
At Downing Centre District Court on Friday, several of Rodger Garry Leighton's victims read impact statements detailing the trauma they suffered at his hands throughout the 1970s and 80s.
One woman said she was scared of reporting the incident in case she'd hallucinated the abuse.
"How can I quantify the effects on my mind and life of being drugged and groped at the tender age of 13 by a so-called medical professional?" one woman told the Sydney court.
"It was my first intimate experience but not with anyone of my choosing; it was with a man about the same age as my father."
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
The abuses spanned almost a decade, between 1974 and 1982, and involved eight victims. Two were 12 or 13 at the time while the oldest was in her 30s.
The woman who was 13 when she was assaulted said she developed anorexia after the attack.
"The impact this one childhood incident has had on me has been to erode my trust in professionals and to lower my self-esteem," she said.
"I have tried so hard to forget the incident."
Leighton, 80, pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault which took place in Jannali in Sydney's south.
The retired dentist has previously admitted to 10 counts of indecent assault during the same time frame.
Prosecutor Brad Hughes told the court: "There is no question the offender is an old person and jail is not going to be easy for him."
He is expected to be sentenced on July 17.
