Sex pest surgeon is let off after presenting a PowerPoint apology

A SURGEON who smothered a junior doctor with kisses has escaped punishment after giving PowerPoint presentations to colleagues in which he confessed to being a sex pest.

Dr Milind Mehta, 48, asked the woman into his office to discuss orthopaedics – only to press himself against her chest before kissing her repeatedly on the neck and shoulder.

She complained to senior colleagues and Dr Mehta faced being suspended or struck off. A disciplinary panel found him guilty of sexually motivated misconduct – but he will be allowed to keep practising after details of his self-castigating talks were revealed.

Dr Mehta, who worked at Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin, Scotland, was so remorseful about his behaviour he used himself as a case study in presentations on ‘professional boundaries’, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester heard.

Addressing up to 75 colleagues at a time, he told of his misdemeanours and urged fellow No punishment: Dr Milind Mehta doctors to learn from his mistakes. In February 2015, the woman doctor, known only as Dr D, had become upset after her boyfriend, who lived in Glasgow, was diagnosed with cancer.

She confided in Dr Mehta over coffee and two days later he invited her to see an orthopaedic presentation in his office.

Chloe Blinding, for the General Medical Council, said the computer was ‘not turned on at any stage’ and that Dr Mehta began to talk about Dr D’s boyfriend and his illness. ‘He said it wasn’t cheating if she confided in someone who wasn’t her boyfriend,’ she told the hearing. He also said if Dr D had to go to Glasgow to look after her boyfriend ‘she should have fun while she was still in Elgin’. He then hugged her repeatedly.

‘He put his head on her shoulder to rest and then she felt him kiss her neck and down to her shoulder and the base of her neck,’ Miss Blinding said.

Dr Mehta initially denied kissing Dr D, but later admitted it was to ‘comfort her in the same manner he would to his niece or daughter’.

The hearing was told Dr Mehta had also kissed a senior manager ‘near her mouth’ after a meeting in 2012 and had telephoned the mother of a male patient in 2013 and asked if she was married.

Describing his presentations on ‘respecting professional and personal boundaries’, Dr Mehta’s counsel Alan Jenkins said: ‘He held himself out as an example from which other colleagues could learn.

‘Whilst he was obliged to tell any employer about the allegations against him, he did not have to tell the world.’

NHS director David Wilkinson, who attended one of the presentations, said in a statement: ‘By sharing his story in

‘Insight and remorse’

such an open and honest way, he was helping to support the development of an open, transparent, learning culture where colleagues are supported to learn and improve.’

Imposing no sanction, panel chairman Stuart McLeese said Dr Mehta had been ‘extremely open’ with his colleagues.

He added: ‘For a doctor who has behaved in a number of inappropriate ways, to open himself up to public scrutiny in the way in which you have done demonstrates a degree of insight, remorse, willingness to improve yourself and concern for your profession that is exceptional.’

A spokesman for NHS Grampian said Dr Mehta was no longer an employee of the organisation.