A Missouri neurosurgeon who once ranked among the country’s top spine specialists is headed to a Scottish prison for two years after sexually assaulting a 20-year-old stranger in a busy Glasgow nightclub.
Camilo Molina, 40, was sentenced Oct. 21 for the April 5, 2025, attack at Kong in Royal Exchange Square, in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland. He approached the young woman from behind, put his hand under her denim skirt, and touched her inappropriately, according to the case record.
Court coverage described a complete stranger targeted in a crowded bar while Molina was in the city for a conference. Prosecutors said he pretended to be a police officer. He denied that claim in court.
Glasgow Sheriff’s Office Detective Inspector Holly Swindells did not soften the finding.
"Molina sexually assaulted the woman, a complete stranger to him, in a busy bar in what can only be described as a despicable attack. He now faces the consequences of his actions."
Swindells also praised the victim’s decision to come forward and stay with the case through the end.
"The woman showed great courage and strength by reporting what happened to her and throughout the legal process. I hope the outcome from court provides her with some form of justice."
Molina was no anonymous tourist. He was a spine-fellow-trained neurosurgeon and former associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis, where he ran his own lab. A university profile said he specialized in spine diseases and worked on technologies meant to make spinal procedures less invasive.
That same profile stated he “was a leader on the clinical design team that ultimately led to the FDA approval and performance of the first augmented reality-mediated spine procedures in the United States.” Defense counsel leaned hard on that résumé at sentencing.
Attorney John Scullion told the court his client had reached the top of a demanding field.
"Mr. Molina worked really hard and established himself as one of the top surgeons in the country in an extremely complex field. He saved many lives by undertaking complex surgery that others would deem impossible."
Scullion also said the nightclub incident came “after many hours of drinking,” and added he was not offering alcohol as an excuse.
"I do not suggest this as mitigation or a way of an excuse but it perhaps provides some explanation for an event that otherwise would be out of character."
The court still imposed a two-year prison term in Scotland and placed Molina on the sex offenders registry there for 10 years. He is a U.S. citizen born in Colombia, married, and had been living with his wife in a nearly $2 million St. Louis home, public records cited in the coverage show. He told the court he still has his wife’s support. Defense counsel called it his first criminal offense.
The professional fallout landed fast and hard. Molina no longer works at Washington University. He resigned from Washington University Hospital. His licence to practise medicine has been revoked.
Scullion spelled out the wreckage in open court.
"The consequences of his conviction have been catastrophic as he has resigned from the Washington University Hospital and his licence to practise medicine has been revoked."
That sequence matters. A physician trusted with complex spine surgery used a night out in Glasgow to put his hand under a young woman’s skirt. The victim was 20. He was 40. They did not know each other. The bar was busy. She reported it anyway and saw the case through.
Scottish authorities treated the conduct as a serious criminal assault, not a misunderstanding to be managed quietly by a hospital press office. The sentence, the registry order, the lost university post, and the revoked medical licence all followed from the same facts: an unwanted sexual attack on a stranger in a public venue.
Molina arrived in Glasgow for professional work and left with a conviction. Prosecutors tied the assault to his time at the conference. The defense stressed drinking, prior good character, and surgical skill. None of that erased what the court found he did inside Kong.
Law-and-order readers do not need a lecture on why this outcome is right. A man with elite training, a research lab, and a high-value home in St. Louis still faces the same basic rule as everyone else: you do not get to sexually assault a young woman in a nightclub because you operate on spines for a living.
The system here did what it is supposed to do. Police took the report. Prosecutors brought the case. A court convicted him. The sentence includes prison time and a decade on the sex offenders registry in Scotland. His employer is out of the picture. His medical licence is gone.
Swindells called the attack despicable and said Molina now faces the consequences. The victim had to show courage just to get that result. That is the record.
Titles, research grants, and a surgeon’s reputation are not a free pass. When the evidence shows a sexual assault on a stranger, the public interest is simple: punish the crime, protect the victim’s path to justice, and strip the offender of positions built on trust he broke.
