I’ll be your Mr Darcy, medic told patient in sex emails
Psychologist faces tribunal
AN NHS psychologist sent a patient hundreds of erotic emails a day in which he compared himself to Mr Darcy and Humphrey Bogart, a tribunal heard.
Markus Themessl-Huber likened himself to the literary heartthrob of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as he romanced a troubled patient, according to email evidence.
The married father also claimed that he had always seen himself as Hollywood legend Bogart’s character Rick from the classic romance movie Casablanca.
The Dundee-based psychologist is facing charges before the Health and Care Professionals Tribunal Service over an affair in 2015 and 2016.
He has already admitted the bulk of the nine charges. They include having an inappropriate sexual relationship with the patient as well as sending her raunchy emails and personal gifts.
The medic has also admitted submitting false timesheets to the NHS to pocket pay while concealing time spent out of the office with the woman, a victim of previous sexual abuse.
In emails heard yesterday, he boasted to the anonymous woman, referred to as Patient A: ‘This is how I secretly make love to you while under the NHS umbrella.’
Themessl-Huber was working for NHS Tayside as a clinical psychologist when the affair began in late 2015.
He kept his head down and stayed silent as their lengthy email correspondence was read out at the hearing in London.
It is claimed the woman became besotted with the psychologist, who began holding her hand and rubbing her arms and sent her gifts including chocolate and cheese.
She is said to have sent Themessl-Huber photos of her in underwear while he asked her for a list of her fantasies.
Patient A told Themessl-Huber just his voice ‘made her orgasm’, the panel heard.
He emailed: ‘I know I have to listen to my inner therapist, even if a huge part of me doesn’t want to.
‘The romantic in me loves being your Darcy, but I have to be a priestly Darcy.’
The patient responded: ‘Maybe this is what you intended all along. Maybe that was your plan from the start.’
The therapist, who faces being struck off, also told the woman: ‘I always fancied myself as Rick from Casablanca. That’s the romantic in me.’
Their exchanges later revealed plans for her to be discharged from his care. He wrote: ‘I worry you feel pressured into being discharged before you’re ready.’
She replied ‘I don’t want it to seem like we cut the cord quickly in such a way that it draws attention to us.’
Patient A was discharged on Christmas Eve and that same day they kissed in a park.
Natasha Portas, for the Health and Care Professionals Tribunal Service, said: ‘It’s accepted by the registrant that on December 24, following the final therapy session, the parties went for a walk and kissed. It’s further accepted that following this, in January to March 2016, the registrant engaged in a sexual relationship with the patient.
‘Earlier in 2016, the patient wrote a number of letters to the Samaritans.
‘We see from these letters that from Patient A’s perspective, there’s reference to telephone calls and sometimes exchanges of hundreds of emails a day.
‘The patient described herself as “confused and heartbroken”.’
In a statement read at the hearing, Patient A said: ‘It triggered all the feelings that came from the sexual abuse. I used to be so strong, and I now feel I have nothing in me.’
The affair ended when she took a medication overdose.
The hearing continues.
‘They went for a walk and kissed’