When Dr. William Hamilton Ayres grabbed a 12-year-old patient’s unclothed groin to check the anatomy of the now-grown family therapist, the former patient said he didn’t think it was legitimate and fled the San Mateo office as fast as he could.

“It was sexual. It scared me half to death. I went straight for my clothes,” testified the man identified in court as Thomas C.

Unlike some previous alleged victims of the former child psychiatrist, Thomas C. didn’t question if he overreacted to the physical exam and knew the doctor checking to make sure his urinary hole was centered was not a medical experience.

“It scared me enough to back away immediately,” he said.

The alleged physical exam came on the second or third session of Thomas’ therapy. He was referred to Ayres by a couple who was counseling his family and said Ayres seemed awkward.

“I don’t think he related really well to young people,” he said.

Thomas was one of three men yesterday — and 10 former patients total — telling jurors he used medical exams to facilitate inappropriate touching and — in some instances — masturbation.

Ayres, 77, has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of lewd and lascivious activity on six former patients between 1988 and 1996 when they were aged 9 to 13. Four other former patients — like Thomas C., Dana P. and Greg H., all who took the stand yesterday — are also allowed to testify for the prosecution although their allegations fall outside the statute of limitations. The prosecution claims Ayres also molested dozens of others that can’t be part of the criminal case.

The defense has not indicated whether Ayres will take the stand on his own behalf or if it will rely on the argument the alleged victims are swayed by faulty memories and leading police investigation techniques.

Ayres is the former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry who garnered national recognition for his controversial sex-education program. He treated dozens of minors referred by schools and the justice system through 2004. In opening statements, defense attorney Doron Weinberg said Ayres’ controversial stances on sex education left him vulnerable to allegations of sexual impropriety.

Dana P., testifying before Thomas, told jurors in 1985 the doctor also started conversations with him when he was 13 about female anatomy and the “elasticity inside a woman’s vagina.”

Dana, like some of the previous witnesses, said the experience wasn’t exactly expected but he didn’t question it until he was older.

“It seemed a little odd but it wasn’t odd enough it made me tell anyone,” he said.

Dana P. said Ayres had him strip and performed a hernia exam. Under cross-examination, Dana P. conceded not dwelling on the experience and said he spoke with police in 2007 following news coverage of the allegation against Ayres because “I just thought I might have some useful information.”

Weinberg pounced on the uncertainty whether the experience was inappropriate or a standard physical.

“Until you heard Dr. Ayres was arrested you didn’t think he’d done anything was wrong?” he asked.

“I might have thought things were odd,” Dana P. said.

Dana P. continued to see Ayres.

Thomas C., however, left the session with Ayres, walked more than two miles home and told his parents he wasn’t returning to the doctor who he referred to as “sick” and “dirty.” Thomas C. said his exam involved Ayres’ claiming he needed to check the positioning of his penile opening and stroking him.

Thomas C. said his parents explained doctors perform physical exams but he never detailed exactly what had happened. He brought up the subject twice more in the next six years but did not tell law enforcement or other mental health professionals until he entered therapy as part of his own training as a family therapist.

In his current position, Thomas C. is a mandatory reporter — a legal requirement to report abuse allegations — but never spoke of his own case until his father sent a news article about Ayres in 2005.

“I feel very guilty that I did not turn him in for this,” Thomas C. said.

Both Thomas C. and Dana P. told their stories to law enforcement for the first time after reading news coverage of the allegations against Ayres. In contrast, Greg H.’s accusations came to San Mateo police via his mother’s therapist who was required to report after she told him in 1987. The report was the first formal complaint against Ayres but after an initial investigation went nowhere until a 2002 report by Steve Abrams which led to a 2005 civil suit settlement.

Greg H., now 39, was referred to Ayres in December 1984 by school officials who read the Prince lyrics “I would die for you” as a suicide threat when he used them to end a letter to a girl he liked. On the first visit, Ayres asked him to remove his shirt and rubbed the inside of his arm “looking for track marks,” Greg H. testified. Ayres also performed a genital exam which was, he said, “a little strange.”

The following May, Greg H. said Ayres claimed there was “something he needed to check” and had the boy stand nude in front of him. Ayres held his penis in one hand and flipped through a book with photos of nude boys, Greg H. said.

He became “mortified” and refused to return. He didn’t tell his mother details until June 1987. She in turn told her therapist which led to the police.

His mother, Lonnie, received a $1,000 check from Ayres, ostensibly for an “accounting error,” although she testified it arrived after the police report. Weinberg told her Greg said it was received previously.

On Dec. 10, 2004, his mother sent him a news article about Ayres which he said led to a full-blown panic attack, a later offer to testify in the civil trial and eventually the filing of a complaint with the medical board.

“Because people have to know about this and it wasn’t just about me anymore,” he said.

Greg H. also filed a civil suit in November 2007 — seven months after the arrest — but denied the defense implication that it was for money. Instead, he said it was the only option left because of the statute of limitations.

“[T]here’s nothing else I can do for myself,” he said.

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.