Hospital doctor ‘pestered’ female medic with 100 sex texts a day
A DOCTOR pestered a female colleague with more than 100 messages a day urging her to embark on a ‘secret love affair’ with him, a medical tribunal heard.
Julian Proctor, 36, sent as many as 900 explicit messages on Whatsapp to the young woman in a ‘relentless’ week-long pursuit, saying he wanted to ‘get you naked’ and commenting on the shape of her bottom.
The woman, in her 20s, repeatedly told Dr Proctor she had a boyfriend – to which he said he was going through a relationship break-up and ‘needed a friend’.
He bombarded her with sexual advances, and sent images of himself taking a shower or posing in underwear. Some explicit pictures were sent to the junior doctor by Dr Proctor while both were in a staff meeting at the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, where he was a senior registrar.
One message read: ‘Hey sexy … have you looked at my video yet, naughty huh?’
Another said: ‘I love squeezing your bum, it’s a nice shape … I still want to get you naked. You do like the idea.’
Dr Proctor, who ‘was in effect her boss’, allegedly tried to embrace the woman in a lift before slapping her bottom. When she asked him to stop he said: ‘But I like you, I can’t help it.’ He also tried to squeeze her bottom and inner thigh and made grabs for her waist and shoulder, it was claimed.
She reported him to supervisors and he was ordered to face a medical tribunal – where he called the exchange ‘a consensual flirtatious relationship’. The woman, referred to only as Dr B, told the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service she had been warned about Dr Proctor’s ‘reputation’ by a colleague. ‘She said he was a bit sleazy … I thought at first what Dr Proctor said was a prank – it was too outrageous to be real,’ she added.
Peter Atherton, representing the General Medical Council, told the hearing in Manchester that Dr Proctor targeted Dr B in April last year during her first shift at the hospital, inviting her for coffee.
‘He then suggested she sleep with him and that they could have a secret love affair for four months to make sure they had a good rotation [time working in a particular department of the hospital],’ Mr Atherton said. ‘He placed his hand over hers and refused to let go.’ Dr Proctor later ‘pulled her close and made kissing and suggestive licking motions’.
The explicit messages and images began on the first day Dr B worked with Dr Proctor, Mr Atherton said, adding: ‘On one occasion … he bent over her as she was facing the computer screen and asked, “How much do you fancy me?” She replied, “I don’t”. He then said, “You’re lying,” and
‘Relentless in his pursuit’
placed his face close to hers and pursed his lips as though trying to kiss her.’
Of the alleged lift incident, Mr Atherton told the hearing: ‘Dr Proctor attempted to embrace her … he was forceful and refused to let go when she said stop.
‘When she left the lift he slapped her on the bottom.’
The tribunal heard Dr B went to see her supervisor who ‘asked her not to take the complaint higher because it would involve a lot of paperwork’. Dr B later spoke to a more senior staff member, claiming she had been ‘persistently sexually harassed’ by Dr Proctor, the hearing was told.
Mr Atherton said the ‘800 to 900 messages’ Dr Proctor sent her showed he was ‘relentless in his pursuit of Dr B for sex’.
Dr Proctor of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, admits sending explicit messages but denies asking for a sexual relationship. He also faces misconduct charges over care of two patients. The hearing continues.