A SUFFOLK consultant psychiatrist faces a probable prison sentence after being found guilty of raping and indecently assaulting six vulnerable women patients.

A SUFFOLK consultant psychiatrist faces a probable prison sentence after being found guilty of raping and indecently assaulting six vulnerable women patients.

A jury found Christopher Allison, 60, guilty by majority verdicts of nine indecent assaults and two rapes after more than 14 hours of deliberations.

The jury, at Winchester Crown Court, acquitted Allison of one rape and two indecent assaults on two other women.

The jury has not yet reached verdicts on two further rape charges, one of attempted rape and one of indecent assault involving four women, and will continue its deliberations today.

Judge Patrick Hooton adjourned the case until tomorrow morning and remanded Allison in custody.

The prosecution alleged during the six-week trial that the assaults took place over a 17-year period when Allison was a psychotherapist at clinics in Kent and Hampshire during the 1980s and 1990s.

At the start of the trial married father-of-three Allison, of Hall Lane, Risby, near Bury St Edmunds, had denied a total of 22 charges of rape, indecent assault and attempted rape.

Two charges of rape and two of indecent assault were dropped during the trial and formal not guilty verdicts were entered.