A RAPIST doctor will face a medical tribunal after months of delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Khalid Jamal, 49, was jailed for six years in 2018 after he was found guilty of raping a 19-year-old woman at a cabin in Balloch and attacking and sexually assaulting another woman at his home on Great Western Road.

He appealed the conviction in April 2019 but his bid failed and he remains in prison.

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The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) had arranged on March 10 for a hearing to consider his fitness to practice but a week later this was postponed indefinitely due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

A new date was set for October 5, some months after, but Jamal had argued for this to be postponed.

The disgraced doctor complained that he did not have sufficient time to consider materials relating to the case and also that he found it difficult to prepare himself for the hearing.

But his plea was rejected.

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The tribunal said a postponement would "neither be proportionate nor in the interests of justice" and that the challenges Jamal faced in prison, which he claimed hampered his ability to prepare for the hearing, were "a natural consequence of his criminal convictions".

 Also rejected were Jamal's complaints that the hearing was interfering with his "parole process".

The tribunal said there was no conflict between his preparations for the hearing and his "parole process".

His substantive hearing with the General Medical Council and the MPTS is scheduled for December 7.