Back at work, the gynaecologist who groped doctor ‘like an octopus’
A GYNAECOLOGIST who was unmasked as a groper by a colleague has been allowed to treat patients again after insisting he has learnt to control himself around women.
Professor Khalid Khan, 55, one of Britain’s leading women’s health experts, was suspended for 12 months after Dr Jen Gunter made accusations that he fondled her ‘like an octopus’ while they were attending a medical conference.
At a hearing to determine his fitness to practise, the married professor claimed he had used his time off work to devise a ‘safe social zone’ strategy when speaking to female colleagues – and the panel accepted his evidence.
His plan includes avoiding physical contact and inappropriate topics of conversation and limiting his alcohol intake.
The investigation into his behaviour began after Dr Gunter, a prominent debunker of bogus medicine dubbed ‘Twitter’s resident gynaecologist’, wrote a blog in 2017 levelling her accusations.
Saying she had been inspired to speak out by the #MeToo movement, the Canadian medic said she had to ‘peel’ Professor Khan from her following his ‘sustained and deliberate’ attentions in a hotel bar.
‘He started that octopus body crawl that so many women know only too well,’ Dr Gunter wrote.
‘He was nuzzling my neck and his disgusting hot breath was in my ear. He was groping my breasts, running his hands up and down my back and putting his arm around my waist, pulling me against his body.
‘Each time I moved one hand or arm another seemed to take his place.’ She subsequently gave evidence about the incident in 2014 to a disciplinary panel.
In April last year Professor Khan was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and sexually motivated behaviour. He was also accused over a second incident at a bar in 2015, when he made ‘intihad
‘Sustained and deliberate’
mate’ remarks and ‘attempted to kiss’ another female colleague.
Professor Khan’s impressive CV includes a professorship at Queen Mary University of London, honorary consultant at Barts and the London School of Medicine and editor-in-chief of the British Journal Of Obstetrics And Gynaecology.
He studied medicine in his native Pakistan and in Canada before joining the NHS. Since his suspension he has been working at the University of Granada in Spain, telling the tribunal he intended to continue focusing on research.
At his Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service review hearing in Manchester, Professor Khan said he ‘learned to modify my behaviour’ while suspended.
‘I continue to meet colleagues socially but I do not initiate physical contact and avoid conversation topics which may not be appropriate,’ he said.
‘I have limited my alcohol intake in those situations and I keep conversations on a professional level, rather than on a personal level. I have learnt how to retract back into the safe social zone.’
Panel chairman Sharmistha Michaels said he was ‘now actively taking responsibility for his actions and interactions with colleagues’. As a result, the panel accepted that ‘the risk of repetition is very low’.