A disgraced GP has been cleared of fresh charges of molesting female patients during unnecessary intimate examinations.

Dr Navin Zala, 69, was jailed for 11 years in 2013 after being convicted of indecently assaulting patients.

Since then, four more women came forward to accuse him of sexually assaulting them between 1985 and 2007.

Three were patients at his surgery in Marling Way, Gravesend, Kent, and the fourth claimed she was assaulted at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup.

Zala denied six charges of indecent assault and two of sexual assault, claiming the women came forward mistakenly following publicity surrounding a previous conviction.

The Old Bailey had heard how he had become a partner of the Gravesend practice in 1982, having qualified as a doctor in 1975.

He took over running the surgery in 1987 until 2011, the court heard.

During that time, the prosecution alleged he took the opportunity to carry out intimate examinations for his own sexual gratification.

Prosecutor Vivian Walters told jurors: "He has previously been convicted of offences of indecently assaulting other patients during consultations at the Marling Way surgery. Those offences took place between 1985 and 1991."

She added: "Of course, just because the defendant has been convicted of sexually or indecently assaulting other patients, it does not automatically follow that he is guilty of the offences which you are to try.

"Indeed, it is the defence case that it is the very fact of these previous convictions and the publicity surrounding them, that has caused the witnesses in this case to mistakenly come forward now."

A jury acquitted Zala of all the fresh charges at the conclusion of a retrial.