A former gynaecologist from Illinois has been jailed for three years for sexually abusing his patients.

Fabio Ortega, who is 75 years old according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in the US state of Illinois, pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse charges after he abused women during consultations and he has been sentenced to three years in prison.

The predator is a former NorthShore University HealthSystem doctor, according to local media outlet Fox 32 Chicago.

They also report that a number of women came forward to sue the medical practitioner as well as the health system over the abuse.

Fox quoted a mother from the Illinois village of Skokie, who requested to remain anonymous because she has yet to inform all of her loved ones about what happened to her, as saying: “You’re so vulnerable at that moment and I really trusted him.”

She added: “My exam was already done, the nurse had left the room, I was still undressed, he signed out of his computer and that was when he took the opportunity to abuse me.”

The lawsuit she filed about three years ago claimed that the doctor had asked her “prying and personal questions” regarding her sex life. But she said that she “trusted Ortega was doing what was medically necessary because he was a doctor.”

In autumn 2018, she began seeing news reports stating that the doctor had been arrested after he was accused of sexually assaulting a different patient.

The Skokie mum said: “As soon as I saw the title ‘North Shore doctor indicted for sexual assault,’ it was like somebody punched me in the stomach.”

Another victim named only as Jane Doe 3 by local media outlet CBS Chicago gave a victim impact statement regarding Ortega and said: “You have broken me. You haunt my dreams and creep into my most intimate moments. I am a shell of my former self.

“I’m not living, I am barely surviving day to day,” she said. “No matter what I do, how much medicine I take, how many times a week I see my therapist, how many people I surround myself with, this will forever be my new identity. I will always be a victim but am hoping that one day I will learn to be a survivor.”

While the doctor has now been jailed, CBS reported that he still faces nine other civil suits from women who accuse him of abuse.