A former doctor has been charged with carrying out sexual assaults against 38 people who were patients in his care.

Nathaniel Spencer, from Birmingham, is accused of dozens of acts of sexual assault, some of them against children younger than 13, between 2017 and 2021.

Ben Samples, a Crown Prosecution Service deputy chief prosecutor, said: “Our prosecutors have worked at length to support a detailed and complex investigation by Staffordshire police, carefully reviewing the available evidence to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings.”

The charges follow an investigation into alleged sexual offences at the Royal Stoke university hospital in Stoke-on-Trent and Russells Hall hospital in Dudley.

Spencer is due to appear at the North Staffordshire justice centre on 20 January. He will face 45 charges: 15 counts of sexual assault, 17 counts of assault by penetration, nine counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, three counts of assault of a child under 13 by penetration, and one count of attempting to assault by penetration.

Anyone with concerns has been asked to contact Staffordshire police.