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A top heart doctor who repeatedly punched his teenage daughter and hit her with his cane has been suspended from practice for a year.

Dr Gohar Rahman, 57, beat his daughter, who was 17 at the time, and called her a "prostitute" after she went to a Halloween party and stayed overnight at a male friend's home, a tribunal was told.

He grabbed the girl by the hair, caned her on the bottom with his walking stick and then punched her in the head after he accused her of "bringing shame" on the family.

The daughter had gone to the party after falsely telling her father she would be home from a friend's house by 9:30pm.

(Image: Cavendish Press)

Rahman, a consultant cardiologist at Wigan Infirmary, assaulted his daughter after he and his wife, also a doctor, picked her up the following morning.

During the assault at home in Standish, Greater Manchester, she was was ordered to take off her party dress and put on traditional clothing before being ordered to pray.

Police were called in after the daughter sent out a SOS message on social media using a Nintendo DS.

Doctors discovered she had bruising to her forehead, lower back left shoulder and left side and three parallel lines on her buttocks where he had hit her with the stick.

A clump of her hair fell out when she was being examined.

The girl - who is now 18 - later described her father as 'looking like a monster' and described the beating as 'awful'.

She said her studies had been disrupted as she struggled to sleep and was receiving counselling.

(Image: Rex)

Earlier this year Rahman - who formerly worked with the United Nations - was given a suspended jail term after he admitted assaulting his daughter.

A tribunal panel decided on Monday that he would not be struck off because he had shown "significant remorse" but he must serve a 12-month suspension.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing had previously heard evidence that the incident occurred after Rahman's daughter - who was referred to only as "A" - left the family home on October 31 last year to go out for the evening with a college friend.

She knew her parents wouldn't allow her to attend the Halloween party so she told them she would be at a friend's house and return at 9:30pm, although she intended to stay out all night.

Her parents called her after she failed to return and her father told her to come home so he could teach her a lesson.

She stayed at the party and then went out in Wigan before staying the night at a male friend's home.

The following morning in the family's car Rahman, who was in the driver's seat, leaned back, grabbed his daughter back the hair and banged her head on the back of the passenger seat two or three times.

He called her a "prostitute" and said he couldn't believe that she had slept "at a boy's house".

At home he dragged her into the living room by the hair and despite her apologies he kicked her while she was on the floor.

Noel Casey, lawyer for the GMC, told the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service: "He told her to get up, so she did but he dragged her up from the floor by her hair. He was slapping and kicking her back and arms so she fell to the floor again. She remembers being hit with a shoe and was assaulted to her arms back and bottom.

"During this he was saying to her that he did not recognise her as a daughter, she was bringing shame on the family and again that she was a prostitute."

Rahman then demanded the passcode for her mobile phone and hit her with a walking stick after she refused to give it to him.

Rahman appeared at Liverpool Crown Court in February where he was given 10 months jail suspended for two years and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work after he admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He is currently suspended by the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Foundation NHS Trust but remains on the payroll.

Rahman graduated from Khyber Medical University in Pakistan, obtained field experience with the United Nations and then a tertiary teaching centre in Pakistan before moving to the UK in 1998.

Work colleagues told the hearing his actions were "out of character".

Dr Ahmed Ismail, a consultant radiologist, said: ''He was shattered and full of regret. He admitted it was the biggest regret of his life."