A Michigan doctor has been arrested after authorities said they found scores of nude photos and videos of children and adults taken while the victims were changing at a swim school, in hospital beds and elsewhere in the Detroit area.
Dr Oumair Aejaz, 40, was arrested August 8 at his home in Rochester Hills, north of Detroit.
Aejaz, an internal medicine doctor, is charged with one count of child sexually abusive activity, four counts of capturing an image of an unclothed person and five counts of using a computer to commit a crime. He was being held in the Oakland County Jail on a US$2 million bond.
Associated Press was not immediately able to reach a lawyer representing him. AP also was unable to reach him or anyone who could speak on his behalf at phone numbers listed in a records search.
The current charges involve images taken of a two-year-old, a four-year-old and two women at a children’s swim school in Oakland County. Investigators believe the victims were filmed from a nearby changing stall, County Prosecutor Karen McDonald told reporters on Tuesday.
It goes from a two-year-old to a grown woman. The victimisation is so broad and the perversion so great, we’re just beginning to wrap our arms around it
“On August 13, the defendant’s wife produced materials that were concerning,” McDonald said. “The Oakland County sheriff’s office immediately executed a search warrant and confiscated more devices and has sifted through really jarring, alarming images and they’re still doing that.”
Authorities strongly believe there are other victims and are seeking to identify them. Investigators have confiscated six computers, four cellphones and 15 external storage devices. One hard drive alone has 13,000 videos, County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told reporters at a news conference.
“This could take as long as six months just to get through what we already have,” he said, noting that other material might have been hidden on Cloud storage.
Bouchard compared the case to that of Larry Nassar, a disgraced sports doctor who is serving decades in prison for molesting girls and women – including some of the nation’s top gymnasts – for years under the guise of medical treatment.
Nassar, who was sentenced in 2018, worked at Michigan State University and as a team doctor with USA Gymnastics.
“There’s no particular category,” Bouchard said of the Oakland County case. “It’s not just children. It’s not just women. It’s not just men. It goes from a two-year-old to a grown woman. The victimisation is so broad and the perversion so great, we’re just beginning to wrap our arms around it.”
“It’s disturbing on so many levels,” he added. “It’s hard to look at the videos of that activity where a woman is basically unconscious in a hospital bed and he’s violating her. To a two-year-old, thinking they’re out for a great swim day and they’re being captured naked.”
Bouchard said Aejaz, a resident of India working in the US on a visa, is a contracted doctor “that went to different locations for a company, rather than having his own specific practice”.
Aejaz came to the US around 2011 for an internship in Michigan and relocated to Alabama in 2018 before moving back to Oakland County, Bouchard said.
He worked at hospitals in several counties in southeastern Michigan.
“This may stretch, not just to Michigan, but to other states and potentially even other countries,” Bouchard said, adding that the crimes may stretch back to at least six years.
