Former medical assistant accused of sexually assaulting more patients at Mass. General

A former Massachusetts General Hospital medical assistant, who was accused in January of raping two patients at the hospital’s health center in the Back Bay, is facing additional charges after two more victims came forward, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said.

Damien Knighton, 39, of East Boston was indicted on seven counts of indecent assault and battery involving four victims, the district attorney’s office confirmed Tuesday.

Authorities originally arrested Knighton Jan. 18 and charged him with rape and indecent assault and battery after a patient at the Commonwealth Avenue health center alleged sexual assault that day. Knighton pleaded not guilty to those charges and was ordered held on $5,000 bail with the condition that he not contact the victim or have unsupervised access to patients.

Upon seeing news reports of Knighton’s arrest, a second patient came forward with allegations from a Jan. 12 visit to the Back Bay health center — leading to more charges against Knighton.

Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden has urged any other patients who may have been assaulted under similar circumstances to contact the Boston Police Department’s Sexual Assault Unit at 617-343-4400.

At the time of his first arrest, Massachusetts General Hospital put Knighton on administrative leave.

“As an organization dedicated to treating disease and alleviating suffering, we were horrified to learn of these charges,” the hospital said in a written statement to WCVB. “We fully cooperated with law enforcement throughout the investigation, and we worked to ensure the affected individuals had access to any emotional and support services they need.”

Knighton will be arraigned on the latest charges involving the two additional victims on June 29 in Suffolk Superior Court.

Material from previous Boston.com reporting was used in this article.

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