Doctor took intimate pictures of vulnerable patients with his iPod
A DOCTOR who was allowed to continue working after taking intimate photographs of patients has been caught doing it again, it emerged yesterday.
Dr Christopher Valentine, 52, was sacked from a sexual health clinic and hauled before the General Medical Council nine years ago for photographing half-naked male and female patients without consent.
His behaviour was branded ‘inappropriate’ but he was not struck off and went to work at an NHS service for drug addicts and alcoholics.
However, the married doctor has been caught again after a nurse saw images of a semi-naked man on his iPod Touch during a night out. Fiona White was stunned to find the pictures while looking at others he had taken of colleagues at a a leaving do.
Valentine told her the image – which appeared to be of a man’s genitals – was of a patient’s heroin injection site, but Miss White and another nurse who saw it were suspicious and decided to report him to his boss. Yesterday, the Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal in Manchester heard that Miss White saw the pictures on the iPod in April 2013 at a leaving party for a member of Clydebank Community Addiction Team, a unit led by Valentine that treats addicts near Glasgow.
Giving evidence at the fitness-topractise hearing, Miss White said: ‘He started taking photographs around the table and I asked to have a look at them. He handed me the device and I scrolled through and saw photos of people at the table and came across a photo of his cat.
‘I kept going and came across a photo of what I would describe as a male groin. I didn’t look close but I remember getting such a shock.’ Miss White gasped at the image, prompting her colleague Maria Forrester, who was sitting next to her, to look at the iPod, too.
Mrs Forrester, a senior addiction nurse, said: ‘In the blink of an eye I could see what she had reacted to. It looked like it was a part of a male body. She seemed quite startled.
‘I remember Dr Valentine saying these were pictures of injection sites. I think I did see genitals.’
Mrs Forrester said she met Miss White later to discuss their concerns, adding: ‘There was a consensus that both of us had seen a naked image of part of a male’s body. I was concerned that patients were being photographed without consent. I thought I had to report this. I couldn’t think of any reason why that doctor would have pictures of patients’ groins.’
Valentine told his boss he took the photos for teaching purposes and used his iPod because he was unable to use NHS equipment.
But an investigation found he used the device to take 53 photos, some of vulnerable patients of both sexes. Some were stored on his home computer. More than half had been deleted when the iPod was seized and had to be retrieved by IT specialists.
Valentine, of Dunoon, west Scotland, admitted ten allegations of taking photographs without medical reason or consent and showing them to colleagues. He denied lying to his boss about how many he had taken and keeping them on his device until August 2013. The hearing continues.
‘I had to report this’