A fake gynaecologist who carried out invasive procedures and fleeced patients of hundreds of thousands of dollars has been sentenced to nine-and-a-half years' jail.
The dual Italian-Australian citizen has been described as a "base charlatan", with no remorse for actions that scarred some of his victims for life.
County Court Judge Bill Stuart's sentencing of Raffaele Di Paolo stretched across two days and amounted to a damning condemnation of his behaviour:"At the end of the day, you are a base charlatan, who has no insight, no remorse and perhaps much self-pity."
The 61-year-old's deception started in Italy, where in the 1990s he obtained forged qualifications showing he was a medical practitioner, obstetrician and gynaecologist.
After returning to Australia, he masqueraded for over a decade as a fertility specialist, charging more than $380,000 for services in Melbourne.
His patients were all seeking help to become parents.
"This was a long-term and determined fraud. You exploited their vulnerability. You did it constantly. You did it without regard for the effects upon these women and men."
He was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years jail.
"You encouraged false hope. You wrongfully touched and penetrated their bodies, scarring all of them, and some, perhaps for life."
Those procedures included internal ultrasounds, blood tests, and - in one case - the repeated injecting of a man's testicles without anaesthetic to extract semen.
After the judge handed down his sentence and imposed a non-parole period of six-and-a-half years, several victims of Rafaelle Di Paolo wept and hugged each other in the courtroom.
While it was conceded Di Paolo didn't carry out procedures on patients for his own personal gratification, prosecutors also successfully sought to have him put on the registered sex offenders' list for life.
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