Doctor ‘tried to blackmail man over sex claim’
AN A&E doctor tried to blackmail her landlord by claiming he had sexually abused his own daughter, a medical tribunal was told.
Dr Sarah-louise Addis, 34, had demanded the return of her deposit and threatened to report the property owner to police and social services unless he gave her the money.
She is alleged to have made the ultimatum after the man’s daughter had told her she had been sexually abused.
Addis secretly accessed the woman’s medical records, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service was told, but wrongly deduced that the father was the perpetrator – in fact it was someone else.
In a text message, Addis told him: “This is in no way blackmail… I am giving you the chance to settle this and clear your name.” The innocent man, known only as Mr B, was interviewed by police but no further action was taken. He then complained to Addis’s employers at Airedale General Hospital in Keighley, West Yorks.
The tribunal was told Addis had been renting Mr B’s apartment and made friends with his daughter through a mutual interest in horses.
The women went on a “girlie night” during which Mr B’s daughter, known as Miss A, revealed she was pregnant and asked for advice. She also told Addis she had been abused in the past.
During a row with Mr B, Addis told him his daughter had aborted a baby. “She said she wasn’t a good Catholic girl because she had an abortion, which I knew nothing about. She said she had seen her medical records,” he said. Denying misconduct, Addis, from Skipton, North Yorks, told the tribunal: “I was under a significant amount of stress… I only viewed her discharge letters, not her medical notes.”
She added: “I couldn’t differentiate between a breach of confidentiality and a doctor patient relationship. I regret doing it. I have not done it before and will not again.”
The hearing continues.