Psychiatrist faces 4 new charges of molestation

Four additional counts of child molestation were filed Thursday against a prominent psychiatrist who is accused of fondling his young, troubled patients.

A prosecutor said two more alleged victims have come forward in the past week and accused Dr. William Ayres, 75, of molesting them each twice in 1991 or 1992. The boys were between 9 and 12 when the alleged assaults took place, prosecutor Melissa McKowan said.

Ayres now faces 18 counts involving five victims, though authorities said that at least 30 victims have come forward with similar allegations that date back to 1969. But the alleged crimes involving many of those men happened too long ago. The statute of limitations for such crimes is 10 years or until the victim turns 28.

Ayres, the former head of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, had previously been charged with 14 felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 that allege that he fondled three boys repeatedly between 1991 and 1996.

He has not entered a plea in the case and remains free on $250,000 bail. He has been barred from practicing medicine or from contacting any of his alleged victims whose names are listed in a sealed court document.

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Carl Holm set a Friday hearing for McKowan to ask for an increase in bail. It was originally set at $1.5 million before a different judge reduced it.

Ayres has not yet hired a lawyer. Three attorneys have represented him at his three hearings. It was unclear who would represent him Friday or the reason for the delay.

Ayres refused to answer questions from reporters. He walked slowly in court, leaning on a cane and wearing a wrinkled gray suit.

The prominent psychiatrist retired last year.