AÂ senior gynaecologist in the UK kissed and fondled a financier’s wife and suggested they have an extramarital affair whilst she was campaigning to save a hospital maternity unit, a tribunal heard today.
Ghanaian Consultant obstetrician Tony Boret, 53, had developed his flirtatious friendship with the mother of two after she raised a petition demanding a decision to shut the privately run service be reversed.
But the friendship culminated in a sexually charged medical consultation in which Boret confessed to cheating on his wife before kissing the 38-year old woman and putting his hand up her top to touch her breasts, it was alleged.
He also suggested they book a hotel room together to ‘make love,’ it was claimed.
The patient – whose husband is a company financial director in London – fled Boret’s office in a state of confusion.
But later she sent the doctor an email saying: ‘Perhaps I have ‘mug’ written on my forehead but I do not want to be married to my husband anymore. I hope to see you again. I miss being your patient.’
The incident occurred after the woman met Boret whilst pregnant with her first child.
Their friendship began to intensify in 2015 when whilst pregnant with her second child.
She began a battle to stop the closure of private maternity services at Watford General Hospital.
The woman broke down in tears as she told Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service: ‘I liked him from the beginning and a friendship started in 2015.
‘He was charming and open. He paid me compliments. He was grateful to me for my help.
He used to say I was his number one patient and he referred to me as his favourite patient.’
But matters came to a head on June 22, 2017 when the pair had a sexual encounter at Boret’s office.
The General Medical Council claim the doctor told the woman she ‘looked beautiful’ and after suggesting they go for coffee, asked how ‘she would feel about having an affair.’
It is alleged he then he said he had cheated on his own wife and that other patients fancied Patient A before he kissed her on the lips and put his hands up her top and touched her breasts on top of her bra.
The woman fled the consultation but asked for a further meeting four days later in which Boret allegedly warned Patient A to be ‘very careful with what she said as there may be video cameras watching her.’
He then allegedly said he was glad she had not been wearing a skirt at the earlier meeting ‘because he did not want to just stick it in and it be over in three seconds.’
He further allegedly said he wanted to take Patient A to a hotel, ‘make love to her and give her an orgasm.’
The woman – known as Patient A – told the Manchester hearing: ‘He told me that I was beautiful and that he had cheated on his wife, and asked if I wanted an affair.
‘We were talking about a mutual friend that they had cheated and he told me he had done the same.
‘He told me honestly that he had cheated on his wife. He lowered his head and kissed me and I just responded to his advances.
‘He had his hands up my top and touched my breasts. There were two kisses. One standing up and one over the desk.I didn’t come onto him – I said he should lock the door but I was flustered. I responded to his advances.
‘He told me that he wanted to take me to a hotel and make me orgasm. I know that he kissed me and touched me on that day. I am five foot tall – I would not have been able to make him kiss me.’
‘I didn’t wear a skirt at his appointments which is why he said he wished I was. He told me to be careful of what I said because there were cameras in the room.’
But the hearing was told of a series of emails the woman sent to Boret after the encounter and she was also said to have made a comment that he was ‘on her bucket list’.
One email sent on July 10 said: ‘It would have been a bit of fun between the both of us. Your career will be safe.’
Another three days later read: ‘I am so concerned with what happened and you may want to erase me from your memory. You made me feel like it was my fault.’
In reply Boret said their relationship is ‘nothing more than a doctor and patient, and that there should be an element of trust between them’ but the woman retorted: ‘You have already broken it, what the hell are you on about? You should have thought about that before you put your tongue in my mouth, touched my breasts and said you wanted to make love to me.’
Then in separate emails she went on: ‘I saw the way you looked at me with those big brown eyes in your office. I can see something was wrong. Perhaps I have mug written on my forehead but I do not want to be married to my husband anymore.
‘I hope to see you again. I miss being your patient. I have only been kind and loyal and the only patient to support you.’
She then emailed him again a few days later saying: ‘I want to apologise to you. I have not been well I am sorry to come on to you. I told my therapist that I made it all up.’
But a further email to Boret added: ‘I only wrote the retraction email in fear. You are a liar and trying to hide what you did to me. You did not realise what harm you have had.’
Under cross-examination Boret’s lawyer, Robert Wastell accused the woman of leaving a ‘paper trail’ with her emails and said: ‘In the summer of 2017, a sexual encounter was not only something you desired, you wanted it to happen.
‘You were desperate to speak to him. You wanted to pursue him more. You felt a sense of entitlement because of your work for the practice.’
He also said her conduct in sending heart-eye emojis to her doctor was ‘inappropriate for a married woman’ but the patient replied: ‘Neither is a doctor telling a patient that he wants to make love to her or hugging a patient. I sent him many types of faces.
‘I had wanted him to know what had happened would stay between us – I just wanted us to go back to the way things were as a friendship. ‘I wanted him to know how I felt.
‘He knows what he said and what he did, I wouldn’t put myself through this ordeal if it didn’t happen. This was someone who I trusted and he knows that but he still did this to me.’
‘Mr Boret sent an email saying nothing could happen between us because he was panicking. He said he didn’t want to risk his career but he had also been inappropriate with me that day.
‘I disagree that it was him saying nothing could happen between us. I wanted him to to know I wasn’t going to say anything and we were still friends.
‘It is not the case that I was pursuing him and he was saying no. My husband says I was acting odd and he challenged me. He was concerned by what happened. I think if this happened to any patient or doctor anyone would be confused and hurt.’
‘I am well aware of what he is facing and I wouldn’t put myself through this if it wasn’t true. It’s not the truth that he rejected me.’
Earlier Charles Garside QC lawyer for the General Medical Council told the hearing: ‘She became his patient in about 2010 and was someone who visited him as a gynaecologist and consultant.
‘When the private hospital was about to close she engaged herself in a campaign to try and keep it open. There is no suggestion of assault or unwanted force and she did not resist it, but it should not have happened.’
Boret who qualified in 1987 worked briefly in Russia and Africa before returning to the UK to pursue a career in obstetrics and gynaecology.
He was appointed as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist to Watford General Hospital in early 2001.
He denies sexually motivated misconduct.
The hearing continues.
Source: todaynewsupdate.net
