Kids Company psychologist ‘took Ecstasy with vulnerable client in gay club’
A PSYCHOLOGIST faces being struck off after being accused of giving Ecstasy to a vulnerable young woman she met through her work at collapsed charity Kids Company.
Dr Helen Winter is alleged to have offered MDMA, the active ingredient in Ecstasy, to the woman, who it is claimed accepted it, in a toilet cubicle at a gay nightclub.
She admits misconduct by taking the class A drug herself and being under its influence while with two ‘clients’ of the charity, known only as ‘C’ and ‘D’ and both in their early twenties, after bumping into them at the club.
But she denies giving MDMA to C or taking it in front of her or D during the night out in January 2014, a hearing at the Health and Care Professions Council heard yesterday.
Dr Winter also tested positive for cocaine in a routine drugs test at the charity four months after the nightclub incident and admitted using drugs ‘on several occasions’ during her leisure time, the hearing was told.
She further admits allowing C and D to stay the night at her flat around a week after seeing them in the nightclub.
The case is the latest in a series of damaging allegations made against Kids Company, which closed last year following claims it misspent public money.
The charity, which is now under the control of administrators, is also being investigated by officers from the complex case team of the Metropolitan Police’s Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command.
The hearing in London yesterday was told how Dr Winter took MDMA with a colleague, teacher Nicci Shall, at Hidden in Vauxhall, south London.
They met while working at the Urban Academy, a pupil referral unit run by Kids Company in Southwark, south London. Miss Shall said she and Dr Winter had also worked with C and D to set up a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender society.
Miss Shall said she had been drinking in a pub from 4pm when she and Dr Winter decided to carry the night on at Hidden. They each bought half a gramme of MDMA from a ‘contact’ of Dr Winter before heading to the club, she said. The drug is taken by dabbing it on the gums.
They each took some in separate toilet cubicles at the club before they saw C and D there, Miss Shall said.
Later she went to a cubicle with Dr Winter and C. Miss Shall told the hearing: ‘Helen Winter offered client C and me a dab of MDMA, which I declined. Helen Winter and client C consumed the MDMA.’
Miss Shall said she felt appalled at the incident and turned to her mentor at Kids Company for advice, but was told her not to take the matter further.
In May 2014, however, after hearing from another colleague that Dr Winter let ‘C’ stay at her home, she decided to report the matter to the charity’s chief executive, Camila Batmanghelidjh.
Kids Company then launched an internal investigation headed by Professor Stephen Briggs.
Professor Briggs, an expert in social work at the University of East London and a consultant for Kids Company, said that she was ‘frank’ in her interview and came across as ‘a very engaged and involved professional who was determined to work hard for the young people she was working with’.
Professor Briggs also interviewed Miss Shall. He recommended that a warning over their conduct would be sufficient to deal with both.
If Dr Winter’s fitness to practise is found to be impaired by the HCPC, she f aces being struck off. The hearing continues.
‘Went into the toilet together’