Doc thought naked selfies ‘humorous’
Georgetown family physician admits he showed nude photos of himself to patients and staff
Georgetown family physician Dr. Nigel Phipps has admitted to showing naked pictures of himself — selfies, to be specific — to more than a dozen patients. But why? “I thought they would think what I thought . . . I thought it was humorous, innocuous,” the 57-year-old doctor testified in his own defence at his discipline hearing Thursday at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), about how he wanted to share with patients what he thought was a “funny” story of a stranger accidentally seeing one of the naked selfies several years ago.
“Through counselling, I realize people don’t think what you think.”
Indeed, several complainants testified Thursday, as well as at the beginning of the hearing in July, that they felt embarrassed, violated and confused when their doctor showed them the photos in the examination room. “A strong yuck factor,” as one patient put it in an agreed statement of facts filed Thursday.
Phipps admits to showing four photos of himself in various stages of undress to several patients and staff.
“I couldn’t believe I had actually done this and didn’t think about the extreme inappropriateness of all this.” DR. NIGEL PHIPPS AT HIS DISCIPLINARY HEARING
Phipps also admits that those actions constitute the college charge of disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional conduct. He denies the college’s allegation that his conduct amounts to sexual abuse of patients.
The photos are as follows: one where Phipps is naked with his penis visible, one of his naked buttocks, one where he’s naked from the groin up but the genitals are not visible and a fourth of him naked with a towel over his arm. The first three have been filed as exhibits at the hearing, while Phipps admits to deleting the fourth from his cellphone.
His lawyer, Jenny Stephenson, walked Phipps through the photosharing incidents Thursday, briefly displaying them to the five-member discipline panel, careful not to give a glimpse to the audience.
Phipps said one of the photos was taken while he was on a golfing trip with friends in Arizona in 2012, and meant for his wife. He recounted how one of his friends was trying to show a woman at the next table at the restaurant a photo on Phipps’ phone, but that the two inadvertently saw the naked picture instead. Everyone thought it was funny, he said.
Flash forward to 2014, when Phipps began telling patients — mostly those he had known for many years — as well as a few staff members this story, and showed them one or more naked selfies. Not many of them found it funny, he would later realize.
“I couldn’t believe I had actually done this and didn’t think about the extreme inappropriateness of all this,” Phipps testified of the moment he realized the repercussions of his actions, when he learned the CPSO was investigating him. “I now know that that story is not very funny and completely inappropriate.”
Phipps said he’s “devastated” about the impact on his patients, and that he co-operated with the college probe. “I didn’t mean to hurt them in any way, shape or form . . . I was just so oblivious.”
He maintained he was “positive” he did not have an erection while showing photos to one patient, contrary to what the woman testified. He also said the four photos are the only ones he showed patients and staff, despite several complainants testifying that they saw different pictures.
One patient was adamant she saw a different photo of his genitals. “The penis I recall seeing was in a downward position as well, but slightly more engorged,” she testified in July.
Another patient, known as Patient Kdue to a publication ban on identities, said Thursday that in the photo she saw, Phipps looked more fit and his pubic hair area was groomed.
Patient K was one of three new complainants who came forward to the college after reading media reports, including in the Star, of the first half of Phipps’ discipline hearing in the summer. The remainder of the hearing had been postponed until October because of a medical condition — revealed Thursday to be throat cancer — that made it difficult for Phipps to testify.
Under cross-examination by Stephenson, Patient K was questioned on whether it’s possible she confused some of the details of the photo she saw. The patient stood her ground.
“That is basically etched in my mind for the rest of my life,” she said.
“In three years, I still know what my doctor looks like naked, and that’s not something I should ever have to know.”