A businessman who devised an elaborate plan to sexually assault women at a health clinic in Clerkenwell has been jailed.

Kevin McCarthy, 67, of Linksway, Northwood in Middlesex, assaulted four victims in the spring of 2019 - and police are now appealing for any other people who think they may have been a victim to come forward.

McCarthy lured women to his company by posting a fake job advert online asking for “training patients”. He said they would earn £75 an hour by acting as “bodies” in a first-aid course for a charity whose employees were supposedly due to travel to war-torn countries.

Before applicants could be accepted, they were told to take part in a 30-minute assessment session with McCarthy as the "trainer" to make sure they were comfortable with the role, given its apparently “intimate” nature.

McCarthy went to great lengths to make the set-up seem plausible and paid a lot of money to hire out a room at a Clerkenwell health clinic to keep up the façade.

Police were contacted in October 2019 by a woman who had become suspicious of McCarthy after seeing gynaecological medical implements in his “consultation room”. When he asked her to fully undress, she asked to see his medical certificate or some form of identification - both of which he was unable to provide.

She warned McCarthy she would call the police and left. However, because she had forgotten her documents, she returned and asked the building's manager to open McCarthy’s locked office. They realised McCarthy - who had given a false name - had escaped through the window.

Police managed to track him down, along with four victims, who all reported having been seriously sexually assaulted.

McCarthy pleaded guilty to nine offences of assault by penetration at a hearing at Wood Green Crown Court on June 22. He appeared at the same court on January 22, and was sentenced to six-and-a-half years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay £10,000 compensation to each victim.

Det Sgt Joel Gregory said: “McCarthy constructed an elaborate deception in order to fulfil his own sexual fantasies without any regard for the damage he has caused the victims."

Anyone who believes they may have been a victim of McCarthy should call 101.