Sex-case GP is in the clear
Hearing is told three patients might have colluded against him
A GP accused of having sex with a patient in his surgery and telling her it would save her marriage has been cleared amid extraordinary suggestions that three women colluded against him.
A hearing into the respected doctor’s conduct was told the trio of patients may have decided to accuse him of misconduct to make money by pursuing a compensation claim.
Dr Kenneth Thompson, 68, was said to have had sex with one patient over a table in the surgery, claiming it was a ‘demonstration’ of how she should have sex with her husband. He was also accused of sexually motivated behaviour towards two other female patients at his practice.
But the General Medical Council
‘Unsure and confused’
heard it was likely all the women knew each other as two were best friends and two had children at the same primary school.
All three patients – referred to in the case as MC, EC and ST to protect their anonymity – had even consulted the same firm of solicitors to pursue a civil claim for damages against Dr Thompson.
The GMC was told this raised a ‘spectre of collusion’ between the women.
Yesterday the GP was cleared of misconduct after a fitness to practise panel was told the women may have been motivated by money to make the ‘implausible’ allegations against the doctor.
During the hearing Mrs EC alleged that, in 2003, she repeatedly had sex with Dr Thompson after confiding to him about the sexual abuse she had suffered as a child.
He told her that he had studied counselling and psychiatry and he could help her. She claimed Dr Thompson advised her to walk around the house naked and asked her to visit him at his surgery in Belfast wearing a white tennis skirt. Mrs MC claimed Dr Thompson carried out intimate internal examinations on her without a chaperone present and gave her four Viagra tablets to help with her poor libido.
Miss ST, who claimed she had been a victim of rape when she was 18, accused Dr Thompson of using his professional position to seek sexual contact with her and conducting an inappropriate conversation with her.
Dismissing the women’s claims, panel chairman Dr Roger Ferguson told Dr Thompson’s lawyer Andrew Hockton: ‘You submitted that there is a real underlying possibility of contamination of evidence in this case. Miss ST and Mrs EC lived in close proximity at the time of the events in question.
‘Their sons were of a similar age and attended the same primary school up to 2006.
‘Miss ST and her son lived close to the primary school. You submitted that it was inconceivable that, in such a small community, these two women did not know each other.’
The panel heard Mrs EC and Mrs MC were also best friends. Dr Ferguson added: ‘The panel has...con-cluded that there is a real risk of contamination and/or collusion between the three complainants, whether inadvertent or otherwise.’
Dr Ferguson said the women were not ‘sufficiently consistent’ or ‘reliable’ and had presented evidence that was ‘unsure and confused’.
Dr Thompson, a qualified doctor for more than 40 years, immediately had his suspension lifted.
It is not thought the women will face any criminal charges following the GMC ruling.