They recorded more than 3,000 calls during which they heard the doctor occasionally talking to people about “candy bars” and “cigarettes.”But the items were–according to prosecutors –code for drugs.For two months, a Newfoundland court has heard allegations that Dr. Buckingham was involved in giving out drugs in exchange for sex.Witnesses have accused him of picking them up at Narcotics Anonymous meetings and taking them home to have sex. One woman said Dr. Buckingham tied her to a tree and whipped her.Another said he agreed to write her a prescription for painkillers –but only if he could have half.”A drug trafficker isn’t just someone selling drugs on a street corner,” said prosecutor John Brooks. “It’s someone who offers drugs in exchange for something else, like sex.”Dr. Buckingham has denied the allegations, claiming that when he spoke in code on the phone it was because he knew police were listening in.However, he admitted trying to obtain some OxyContin for his drug-addicted fiancee.The list of allegations against the 47-year-old physician is long in length and depraved in detail. But in closing arguments yesterday, defence lawyer Randy Piercey said the accusations were simply untrue.Mr. Piercey said many of the complainants in the case were drug abusers who had convinced more than one doctor to write them prescriptions.”If you’re capable of doing that kind of fooling, then you’re pretty good at fooling people,” he told the jury.Mr. Piercey noted one of the witnesses testified Dr. Buckingham never hurt her, but earlier told police he had sexually assaulted her with a sex toy. “If you’re telling the truth, that’s not something you’re going to forget,” the lawyer said.Police first arrested the physician in May, 2005, following months of surveillance and a raid on his home. Investigators had wiretaps on both of the doctor’s cellphones, recording more than 3,000 calls, and kept him under 24-hour watch.It took two years for the drugs-for-sex case to reach trial, with two previous attempts to prosecute Dr. Buckingham ending in mistrial.Proceedings fell apart the first time in April after the judge excused four jurors and two alternates because of health problems and professional commitments. One month later, a second trial collapsed after defence attorneys challenged the accuracy of the province’s jury lists.More than 30 phone calls were eventually entered as evidence at the trial, bolstered by the testimony of a string of former patients. The women, who cannot be named because of a publication ban, all told similar tales.One told the court she began having sex when she was 19 in exchange for Percocet and Oxy-Contin.Soon the doctor was picking his patient up at her Narcotics Anonymous meetings and taking her home.On one occasion, the woman said Dr. Buckingham demanded oral sex while she bounced her seven-month-old daughter on her knee.
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