‘Mr Darcy’ psychologist is struck off after affair

AN NHS psychologist who likened himself to Mr Darcy from Pride And Prejudice during an affair with a vulnerable woman patient has been struck off.

Markus Themessl-Huber sent the woman hundreds of smutty emails and arranged for her to be discharged from his care so they could consummate their relationship during working hours.

The married father handed in false timesheets to NHS Tayside in Dundee to conceal his affair.

At a tribunal the Health and Care Professional Council panel found Themessl-Huber guilty of misconduct and ruled his fitness to practise was currently impaired. He was subsequently struck off.

The tribunal heard that the woman became besotted with the psychologist and the pair sometimes exchanged hundreds of sexual emails a day.

She sent him photos of her in underwear and he asked her for a list of her fantasies.

The psychologist also began holding her hand during therapy and allowed her to sit on his lap and hug him, the tribunal heard. He also bought the patient gifts.

The psychologist said he wanted to be her Darcy and had also seen himself as Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick from the film Casablanca. She called him “erotic, smart and beautiful” in emails and “needed him in her life forever”.

The affair ended when the patient took an overdose of medication. She wrote to the Samaritans to say the relationship had left her “heartbroken” and “confused”, triggering the same feelings she had suffered from previous experiences of sexual abuse.

Themessl-Huber admitted the affair. He added: “It’s a very difficult thing I have to face up to every single day, the harm I caused.”