A 12-month prison sentence on a Somerset GP for indecently assaulting three women patients has been increased to 18 months by the court of appeal.

Two judges in London upheld argument by the Attorney General that the original jail term on Dr Philip Carman was 'unduly lenient'.

Carman, 50, who practised in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, was jailed at Bristol Crown Court after being convicted last September on nine charges spanning an 18-year period.

He was said to have committed the offences during intimate medical examinations.

The Court of Appeal quashed six of the convictions, but upheld the three most serious and then went on to hear the move to increase the sentence for those three.

Lord Justice Kay, sitting with Mr Justice Field, said that doctors who committed such offences were guilty of a'huge breach of trust' and sentencing judges should aim at prison terms in the region of three years.

But Carman had suffered a serious and permanent arm injury since committing the offences, and the court took this into account.

It also had regard to the fact that the other convictions had been quashed and that Carman had had to face the sentencing process a second time.

The judges had heard that Carman was of previous good character and well-regarded by his partners and other patients. His medical career was now over.

FOR more Bristol, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Dorset and Wiltshire news, order a regular copy of the Sunday Independent. FIRST. BEST. EVERY SUNDAY...