A former Bendigo emergency doctor jailed for more than six years for repeated sexual offending against a teenage girl won't have his prison sentence increased.
That's despite Victoria's Court of Appeal describing the sentence handed to Obiyo Nwigwe as lenient.
Over two weeks in March 2020 Nwigwe's offending against the 13-year-old grew increasingly serious.
He repeatedly had sex with the teen in his bedroom, sometimes while his own three children were at home.
Nwigwe pleaded guilty to four charges of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and one of transmitting indecent communications to a child.
He told the girl "I love you" and sent her a naked photo of himself.
In a phone call he said to her "if we were [in] another life, if you were above 18 and I was single, then that would be perfect because I think you're an amazing person".
Nwigwe's wife was in the UK completing her own medical training at the time.
The court heard he had been lonely because of the separation from his wife, and suffered post traumatic stress disorder.
He was ordered to serve at least four years and three months of the sentence.
But the Nigeria-born doctor who also lived and worked in the UK will be deported after completing the full sentence.
Prosecutors appealed that sentence to Victoria's Court of Appeal, arguing it was manifestly inadequate.
But the appeal was rejected by three judges on Friday.
It was put in his defence that he had showed genuine remorse and that the convictions had ruined his life - causing him to lose his profession, his marriage and because his children will be strangers to him when he sees them again.
"The sentencing judge has imposed sentences that could be considered lenient," the judges said in Friday's ruling.
But they weren't satisfied there had been a failure by the sentencing judge to consider all relevant matters.
"This is not a case requiring intervention of the court," they found.
