A doctor accused of pouring beer down a younger colleague’s cleavage before licking it off and touching her breasts has been suspended for a year.<\/p>\n
Dr Mark Johnson, who was working at West Suffolk Hospital at the time of the incident, also allegedly sent \u00ab\u00a0derogatory and sexually demeaning\u00a0\u00bb messages to another junior colleague.<\/p>\n
Some of these messages included comments about the size of his colleague’s breasts, sex positions and oral sex, a tribunal was told.<\/p>\n
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPT) said some of Dr Johnson’s actions constituted sexual harassment and suspended him from practising for 12 months.<\/p>\n
During the hearing the General Medical Council (GMC) representative argued Dr Johnson should be banned indefinitely from the profession.<\/p>\n
The MPT panel, however, concluded his \u00ab\u00a0conduct was not persistent nor was it a pattern of predatory behaviour\u00a0\u00bb and that he was \u00ab\u00a0capable of remediation\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Dr Johnson joined West Suffolk Hospital as a consultant in 2013, before leaving 10 years later following disciplinary proceedings.<\/p>\n
The panel heard he sent sexual and inappropriate messages to a junior colleague about other colleagues between November 2018 and November 2019.<\/p>\n
During a work Christmas party in December 2022, Dr Johnson moved his hand up and down a colleague’s back, blew smoke from a vape in her face and kissed her.<\/p>\n
Then he was said to have tipped some of his drink onto the junior colleague’s cleavage before licking it from her skin.<\/p>\n
The GMC suggested this was \u00ab\u00a0a grave violation\u00a0\u00bb of her \u00ab\u00a0dignity\u00a0\u00bb, while the MPT said his actions were \u00ab\u00a0sexually motivated and constituted sexual harassment\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
The MPT ruled the conduct of Dr Johnson, who is now employed at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, was \u00ab\u00a0inherently serious, deliberate, and sexually motivated\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
While it concluded his fitness to practise was impaired, it said he had \u00ab\u00a0developed meaningful insight\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0embedded sustainable behavioural change\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
Dr Richard Goodwin, the medical director at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said: \u00ab\u00a0We referred Dr Johnson to the GMC following an internal process, prompted by reports of potential sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We’re committed to eradicating sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace by promoting a culture that fosters openness and transparency, and never tolerates unwanted, harmful or inappropriate sexual behaviours.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
The Royal Sussex County Hospital has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A doctor accused of pouring beer down a younger colleague’s cleavage before licking it off and touching her breasts has been suspended for a year. Dr Mark Johnson, who was working at West Suffolk Hospital at the time of the incident, also allegedly sent \u00ab\u00a0derogatory and sexually demeaning\u00a0\u00bb messages to another junior colleague. Some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}