Doctor who says work stress made him molest girls
A JUNIOR doctor who led a double life as a seaside prowler molesting young girls at night has lost his bid to save his career.
Benjamin Brooks was jailed after randomly targeting six victims aged between ten and 14 in the street over 17 days.
The 28-year- old blamed his crimes on ‘extreme stress’ from working long hours at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
After being freed early on licence, Brooks was struck off on Thursday following a legal battle against the General Medical Council to try to retain his job.
He said he ‘ deserved’ to be allowed to continue practising medicine, claiming his ‘heart was in the right place’.
At a medical tribunal in Manchester, Brooks argued society had a ‘lack of understanding’ about sexual offending and claimed there was a ‘certain amount of stigma’ levelled at perpetrators. Astonishingly, he added there was no evidence of ‘long-term psychological damage’ to his victims.
But the tribunal heard one girl is now too scared to go out or have a bath on her own, while another became upset at school as a teacher bore a resemblance to Brooks.
A third was nervous about meeting her own friends. She was shocked when she found out Brooks was a doctor, saying: ‘How can I trust anyone?’
The children were all assaulted in Blackpool in November 2016, with Brooks approaching them on street corners or at bus stops before molesting them.
He attempted to expose himself in front of two girls aged ten and 12, and told a 13-yearold she had ‘nice boobs’ when putting his hand down her bra.
Brooks, who worked as a phlebotomist, was arrested after one of the girls sought help from a passer-by who recognised him as a colleague. After admitting the offences he was jailed for 28 months last April, later reduced to 22 months on appeal, and was freed earlier this year.
The tribunal panel threw out Brooks’s plea to have the hearing dealt with in private and banned him from working in medicine.
Brooks claimed working again would reduce the risk of him reoffending and enable him to ‘rebuild his life’. But it emerged during the hearing that he had previously viewed child sex abuse material while at university but was never prosecuted.
Tribunal chairman Richard Kember was concerned about a ‘risk of repetition’ of the offending. He said: ‘You have taken few steps toward remediation, and have a very concerning lack of insight.
‘ Your conviction, and the behaviour which led to it, undermines the unique position of trust that you occupy as a medical practitioner, and you abused that trust.’