Doctor ‘pursued cyber affair with sick girl’s mother’
A CHILDREN’S doctor had a ‘cyber affair’ with a former patient’s mother – sending her thousands of explicit photographs and texts and carrying out a sex act during a video call, a tribunal was told.
Dr Malcolm Lewis, 65, a kidney expert, could be struck off over his alleged pursuit of the married woman.
The former consultant at Royal Manches- ter Children’s Hospital became close to the woman while treating her child, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard.
The girl, who is now 16 and was named only as Patient A, was under Lewis’s care from November 2014 until December 2015, when he was suspended for unrelated matters.
Peter Atherton, lawyer for the General Medical Council, said: ‘Patient A and her mother established a trusted relationship with Dr Lewis. He would often telephone the mother with blood results.’
After the girl’s care was transferred, her condition deteriorated and she underwent a kidney transplant. Lewis met her mother at a cafe, Mr Atherton said, who claimed he would have treated her differently. They began exchanging daily texts about the teenager’s care and he visited the woman at home in Lancashire. Soon after, their relationship developed into what the mother called a ‘cyber affair’. Mr Atherton told the Manchester hearing: ‘The mother received a message from the doctor in which he said, “I have always loved you.” She thought this was odd but was flattered by it. Dr Lewis and the mother continued to exchange messages.
‘She has described how he was sexting [sending sexually explicit messages, photos or videos] on a daily basis.
‘In another message, he told her he wished Patient A was his child. The mother later gave consent for Patient A and the doctor to exchange messages about health issues. He returned to Manchester every two weeks and would meet the
‘Sexting on a daily basis’
mother for coffee.’ The alleged cyber affair was exposed when the woman’s IT consultant husband found messages on her phone. They later split up.
The mother ended contact with Lewis after an alleged explicit video call as her teenage daughter sat beside her. Lewis, it was said, was shirtless, lying on a bed drinking wine and appearing to carry out a sex act. The mother immediately ended the call and reported him to police, but no action was taken.
Lewis, from Prestwich, near Manchester, who has since retired, denies sexual motivated misconduct. He said no physical contact occurred other than shaking hands or a ‘brief hug’.