A Detroit-area doctor has been charged with using hidden cameras to secretly film women and children in the hospital where he worked over the course of six years, in a case that police said showed his “depravity had no limits.”
Dr. Oumair Aejaz, 40, recorded children as young as two and women recovering from operations in various hospital rooms, the County of Oakland Sheriff’s Office said in a press release. He spied on people in changing rooms, closets, bathrooms and bedrooms at hospitals and at a local swim club.
He received 10 charges, including one count of sexual abuse of a child; one count of using a computer to create and/or reproduce child sexual abuse material, and four counts of capturing or recording children under 18 and two women while nude. His bond is set at $2 million.
“This is one of the most disturbing sexual predator cases I have seen in my very long career,” Sheriff Michael Bouchard told a press conference Thursday. “He violates literally anyone and everyone he can. From a 2-year-old boy to grown women, no one is immune from his disgusting predatory behavior.”
The number of victims is unknown “because there are so many of them,” he said.
Bouchard added: “At the end of this case, it is my fervent hope that he is held fully accountable behind bars.”
“These are children and moms at a swim school,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen D. McDonald said during the news conference. “They were victimized by a person of trust in the community — a medical doctor.
Aejaz had privileges at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township and Ascension Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc Township. Both hospitals are cooperating with the investigation.
“We are shocked by these allegations and take them very seriously. This individual has never been an employee of Henry Ford Health but had privileges at several area hospitals, including Henry Ford Macomb Hospital,” Henry Ford Macomb Hospital said in a statement.
“The safety of our patients and team members is our top priority and we have taken immediate action to prevent him from practicing at our health system,” the statement added.
NBC News has contacted Ascension for comment.
Sheriff’s detectives received a tip about Aejaz’s behavior on August 7 and carried out a raid on his home the next day, when six computers, four cell phones and 15 external storage devices were seized.
Just one device contained 13,000 videos dating back six years — detectives estimate it will take at least six months to fully examine all the seized devices.
NBC affiliate WDIV of Detroit reported that the tip-off came from Aejaz’s wife.
Police said Aejaz is from India and was working in the United States on a visa after coming to the country in 2011. A specialist in internal medicine, he completed his residency at Detroit Sinai Grace Hospital, before moving to Dawson, Alabama. He later returned to Oakland County in 2018.
Bouchard said the scope of the investigation would take detectives beyond Genesee and Macomb Counties, where Aejaz worked, and could include other states and possibly other countries.
Anyone who believes they may have been a victim can contact the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office at OCSOSIU@oakgov.com. (NBC)