THE DENTIST AND HIS THONG
A dentist who pranced around in a leopard-print thong shouting ‘get a load of that’ during an affair with his teenage nurse has been struck off.
Anthony Barton, 36, regularly groped his trainees’ bottoms, twanged their knicker elastic and tried to undo their bras during eight years of ‘sexually motivated behaviour’.
Banter with one 19-year-old trainee led to sex in the toilets at the Red Rose Dental Group in Wigan, Greater Manchester, the General Dental Council heard.
The sex-mad dentist has been removed from the dental register after being found guilty of ‘unprofessional, inappropriate and indecent’ sexual conduct towards three women between 2000 and 2008.
Twice-married Barton was found guilty of ‘unprofessional and inappropriate’ conduct towards a fourth young dental nurse.
GDC chair Anthony Kravitz said: ‘The committee has found that you behaved inappropriately and unprofessionally towards four dental nurses who worked with you, and that your behaviour towards three of them was indecent.
‘As a partner in the practice, working directly with these dental nurses, you were in a position of authority over them which you abused.
‘This behaviour extended over a period of more than seven years between December 2000 and June 20008 and included inappropriate physical and intimate sexual touching, as well as sexual comments and questions.’
Barton abused the trust of the young vulnerable women, the GDC concluded.
Mr Kravitz added:‘The committee has heard about the serious and lasting effects of your behaviour on Ms D in particular, and on your former practice.
‘It has determined that your behaviour was a serious breach of trust of several vulnerable employees.
‘Furthermore your conduct clearly demonstrates a system of sexual behaviour towards young females over a period of years.
‘The only sanction which remains available to the committee is erasure, which for all the reasons stated, it considers to be appropriate and proportionate.’
The dentist whipped off his trousers and ‘pranced around’ his surgery in his thong during a six-month affair with 19-year-old Ms B.
The pair would perform oral sex on each other in his office and sneak down to the surgery toilet for sex when other staff had gone home.
Barton asked two of his other dental nurses, who were both in their teens when they started working for him, if they shaved below the trouser line.
He even inquired if one would wear a thong to work for him.
During his five-day misconduct hearing he admitted he was ‘guilty of crossing the line’ with his employees.
He was found guilty of 17 charges relating to his treatment of these women.
Dental nurse Ms A was just 19 when she took her first job under the tutelage of Barton.
Within months he was regularly twanging her knicker elastic and trying to undo her bra, the hearing was told.
Sex was a ‘constant topic’ of conversation and Barton would ask her if she shaved her bikini line.
She used to make excuses to avoid being in the same room as the boss she described as ‘cocky’.
The behaviour carried on as Barton went through a divorce but it slowed as he met his second wife, the GDC was told.
Ms A quit in 2002 but the second object of his affections, Ms B, took over as his trainee dental assistant.
Their affair began after he tried on a leopard print thong as a joke and told her ‘you’ve seen mine, now show me yours’.
At the same time Barton was groping a 22-year-old dental nurse known as Ms C, the hearing was told.
The dentist squeezed her knee while giving her a lift to work in his car, the GDC heard.
He once cornered her finding out she had split up with her fiancée and asked her ‘if she wanted a bit of fun’.
When Ms B left on maternity leave in 2007, Barton transferred his affections to 22-year-old dental nurse Ms D.
She told the hearing of her disgust when his sexual innuendos took a physical twist and he began to ‘gratuitously grope’ her bottom in the office.
She told the hearing: ‘I remember my trousers fell down a bit so I pulled them up myself. Mr Barton was standing behind me and thought that was a good opportunity to feel my bottom.
‘I think that’s the day he said I had a nice a***.’
The next day Barton copped a feel again, telling her ‘let’s have a feel’ before claiming his preference for thongs, the hearing was told.
‘I had big knickers on and he said he would like it better if I wore a thong so he could feel my a*** properly,’ she said.
‘I was very shocked,’ she added.
On the third day, Barton returned from his lunchtime partners’ squash match and told the nurse: ‘When you feel a woman’s a*** you have to feel it properly’.
He then slid his hand ‘forcefully’ between her legs, she claims.
She said: ‘I was very shocked, very embarrassed, quite disgusted, scared, nervous about what was going to happen next.’
Ms D was forced to call in sick in tears the next day and bosses finally investigated complaints from several of the nurses.
Barton at first denied any inappropriate behaviour but finally resigned in August 2008.
He now works at James Hull Dental Care in Runcorn Road, Barnton, Cheshire.
Barton of Walnut Farm, Runcorn Road, Warrington, Cheshire, admitted having a six-month affair with dental nurse Ms B and was found guilty of having sex with her during surgery hours.
He was found guilty of multiple allegations of touching Ms A, Ms C and Ms D, and that his behaviour was ‘unprofessional, inappropriate and indecent.’
ENDS
