SINGAPORE - A self-professed medical practitioner, who was convicted of 14 charges of sexually assaulting a woman under the pretext of providing fertility treatment, was sentenced to seven years' jail on Thursday .

After a 13-day trial Koh Nai Hock, 64, was found guilty of sexually penetrating a businesswoman, then 40, on seven occasions at hotel rooms between Nov 1 and Dec 25, 2010.

Koh, represented by Mr Edmond Pereira, is appealing against conviction and sentence.

The case of the prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutors Lin Yinbing and Michael Quilindo, is that the woman was infertile and was scheduled to undergo surgery to remove an endometriotic cyst in February 2011.

In late 2010, she came to know Koh, who claimed to practise "complementary alternative medicine'' and professed to be able to treat her infertility.

All the "treatments" were carried out at Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel except for the last session, on Dec 25, which took place at Ibis Hotel.

The woman had allowed Koh to penetrate her private parts with his finger as she was under a misconception that he was treating her for fertility.

The prosecution contended that his real intention was, in fact, to sexually penetrate her. He knew that she had given consent under the misconception that she was receiving fertility treatment.

She and her husband met Koh at the hotel rooms at Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel on six occasions for "treatment".

Koh would first perform "treatment'' on both the victim and her husband on separate beds, in the form of chiropractic manoeuvres, massages and exercise.

The husband would then be asked to leave.

The woman would then change into a bathrobe at Koh's request before he "treated'' her.

It was during the seventh session that she realised that something was amiss.

The woman, who went to Ibis Hotel alone, was lying on the bed when Koh bent down and kissed her on the cheek and told her she was "cute''.

She rejected his request to suck out the negative energy from between her breasts with his mouth. He then sexually assaulted her before hugging her, ostensibly to straighten her spine.

After she left, she said she was nauseous and very shocked. She lodged a police report on Feb 2, 2011.

The defence is that those acts were legitimate forms of treatment to cure the victim of her infertility so that she could get pregnant.

District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim,who disagreed with his defence, had found that what he had done was not legitimate, and that he knew that they were not legitimate methods and they were clearly sexual in nature.

A senior consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at Singapore General Hospital was unequivocal when he said that such penetrations are not methods to cure infertility. A TCM expert said the same thing.

Koh could have been jailed for up to 20 years and fined on each charge. No caning was imposed as he is above 50.