Attorney files sexual abuse suit against former Children’s doc

Levine, 71, did not return messages left Thursday. He has previously denied any wrongdoing.

A Boston attorney filed a class action sexual abuse lawsuit Thursday against a former Children’s Hospital pediatrician who he claims may have harmed thousands of other children.

Attorney Carmen Durso filed the complaint against Dr. Melvin Levine in Suffolk Superior Court on behalf of five former child patients of Levine’s while he worked at Children’s.

For the time between 1971 and 1984, when the victims were between the ages of 4 and 13, the complaint alleges that Levine “performed genital examinations of his patients which were not medically indicated, during which he stroked, massaged and manipulated the genitals of his patients in a manner which [sic] not medically necessary.”

“Many of them can’t even speak about this,” Durso said at a Thursday morning press conference.

Children’s Hospital is also named as a defendant in the civil action for being negligent.

Durso said he has spoken to the parents of one victim who claim they notified Children’s of the abuse decades ago.

In a statement, Children’s said that they did not receive any complaints while Levine practiced there. The statement said one complaint was filed after he left and an investigation determined his actions to be appropriate within the context of the child’s medical needs.

Durso filed complaints against Levine on behalf of other victims in 2008. He said those cases have since been settled, but declined to say what the terms were.