Jailed physio struck off

Aphysiotherapist who was jailed for carrying out a series of sexual attacks and physical assaults has been struck off by his professional body.

Derek Adams, 61, was sentenced to nine years in prison last year after being convicted of 12 offences, including two rapes, an attempted rape and indecent assaults on women.

Victims of Adams, of Dunfermline, included four women – one of whom later became a Church of Scotland minister.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, he was also found guilty of physically assaulting four women and two children, including a two-year-old girl.

None of the incidents related to his work but his case was referred to a disciplinary hearing of the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS).

The panel barred Adams, who was also a registered chiropodist, from ever working in the professions again after hearing he continued to deny the offences.

In a written decision, the HCPTS panel said: “The registrant has expressed neither remorse nor apology and has shown no insight as to the negative impact of his offending on his victims, his own professional status or the

reputation of the professions to which he belongs.

“His offences were numerous, took place over several years and, as outlined in the sentencing remarks of the trial judge, ‘followed a discernible pattern over the years’.

“The panel accepted that there was no evidence that the registrant’s offending had ever taken place in the context of his professional practice.

“However, given the

varied and serious nature of his offences, his lack of remorse and assertions that he had not been guilty of any wrongdoing, there is, in the panel’s judgment, a significant risk of repetition.

“If permitted to practise without restriction, the registrant would pose a risk of serious harm to females which might include patients and colleagues.

“The panel concluded that the offences for which

the registrant has been convicted and sentenced are incompatible with his remaining on the register of either profession and that the only appropriate and proportionate sanction is a Striking Off Order.”

During Adams’ trial, the court heard how a 54-yearold woman who was raped at a house in Fife said she had made contact with him through an online dating site.

She said he first appeared to be “charismatic, friendly, educated and funny”. She said he was working as a private physiotherapist.

But the woman said that he later became “very cold”

towards her, began making derogatory remarks and told her to kill herself.

She told the court that during the rape attack on her in January 2011 he pinned her down on a bed and restricted her breathing. The woman said that on other occasions Adams had threatened to break her legs and kill her.

Adams’ abusive offending began in 1985 in the Clarkston area of Glasgow when he was violent towards a woman.

She was thrown on to the floor, pushed, forced outside a house in only nightclothes and struck on the head. She was later raped.

The woman, who became a minister, said she had forgiven Adams but that she will never forget what he did.

He also attempted to rape another woman at a house in Clarkston between 1989 and 1990.

He attacked another woman at a house in Winchburgh, in West Lothian, in 1996.

Sentencing him in April last year, Lady Carmichael said: “The picture with which I am presented in the Criminal Justice Social Work Report is of someone who does not recognise he has done anything wrong and continues to blame the complainers.”

NO REMORSE: Derek Adams has been struck off after he was convicted.