Court bans Bons medic over sex attack allegation

A FORMER radiographer at the Bon Secours hospital in Tralee has been banned from practicing on foot of an allegation that he sexually assaulted a female patient at the private hospital.

Jomin Jose – who was not a direct employee of the Bon Secours and who no longer works at the hospital – was struck off the medical register for seven years by Mr Justice Peter Kelly at the High Court on Monday.

The matter came before the High Court on foot of an application by the Health and Social Care Professionals Council who investigated the September 2016 incident.

The enquiry found the Indian radiographer had ushered his 61-year-old female patient into a cubicle – where he knew there were no cameras – and carried out non-consensual sex acts.

After the incident he made lewd remarks about the woman’s body, asked for her phone number and told her to ask for him by name if she ever needed another MRI scan.

A forensic psychiatrist rejected Mr Jose’s claim that he had suffered a “psychotic” episode during the incident.

A FORMER radiographer at Tralee’s Bon Secours hospital has been banned from practicing on foot of an allegation that he sexually assaulted a female patient at the private hospital.

Jomin Jose – who was not a direct employee of the Bon Secours and who was employed by an outside contractor to carry out diagnostic scans at the hospital – was struck off the register by Mr Justice Peter Kelly at the High Court on Monday.

The matter came before the High Court on foot of an application by the Health and Social Care Professionals Council – known as CORU – whose Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) previously investigated a sexual assault allegation against Mr Jose in September 2016.

At the time of the alleged attack Mr Jose was employed by Alliance Medical and it was that firm’s Human Resources Director who referred the case to CORU after a 61-year-old female patient made a complaint against the Radiographer.

Details of the PCC enquiry were outlined in court.

In its application to have Mr Jose struck off CORU alleged that while working as a radiographer in September 2016, he engaged in sexual acts, including penetration by the penis of the anus, and digital contact and/or rubbing of the genitals of a patient in his care.

Following an inquiry the PCC found – on the basis of unchallenged evidence of the female patient and another person – that the allegations of misconduct were proven.

The PCC described his actions inappropriate conduct of the “most egregious” sort involving a fundamental abuse of Mr Jose’s position that caused grave harm to the patient.

The PCC rejected Mr Jose’s claims of a psychotic episode or a lack of capacity on the date in question, Justice Kelly noted.

While the PCC said the circumstances were “unusual”, it was satisfied the incident involved “opportunistic” conduct by Mr Jose who had referred to an absence of cameras, took the patient into a cubicle and told her she had a “nice p***y”.

He had also asked for her phone number and told the patient to ask for him by name if she needed another MRI scan.

The PCC considered it was “not remotely likely” a psychotic episode would last only a few minutes and it was satisfied from the evidence that Mr Jose had full capacity on the day

A forensic psychiatrist also rejected Mr Jose’s claims that he had a “psychotic” episode.

Mr Jose – who was not in court – had not appealed the PCC’s finding of misconduct.

Justice Kelly cancelled Mr Jose’s registration for seven years and ordered that authorities in Mr Jose’s home country of India be notified of the ruling.

Mr Jose no longer works at, or has any involvement with, the Bon Secours in Tralee.