A doctor accused of groping a teenage patient toda
A doctor accused of groping a teenage patient today (FRI) admitted he may have been insensitive when he made her sit in her underwear throughout an appointment.
John Harding-Price, 71, said at the time the 17-year-old did not seem ‘perturbed’ by the consultation.
He flatly denied allegations that he fondled her breasts and slapped her bottom.
The GMC has heard how the girl, now 19, visited psychiatrist Harding Price at the Lawn Medical Cental Sewell Road surgery in Lincoln when she was run over by a Jaguar car on her 15th birthday.
She claimed that on August 22, 1998, as he examined her for a report towards her civil action against the driver, the doctor unhooked her bra and groped her chest as her stunned boyfriend looked on.
But today Dr Harding Price, who helped grieving relatives of the victims of killer nurse Beverley Allitt, denied doing anything wrong during the appointment.
The parents of the teenager looked on from the public gallery as he said he asked her to strip to her underwear behind a screen before listening to her back and chest with his stethoscope.
Asked by defence barrister Malcolm Fortune if he had cupped her breast, he replied: ‘No sir.
I asked her to undo her brassiere so I could listen to the chest.
‘
The doctor admitted asking the girl to bend forward whilst he held her hips but he claimed this was to examine her spinal movement.
And he said he only moved her knickers to examine a lump on her back.
Dr Harding Price told the committee: ‘I had to move her knickers back to feel the full extent of the swelling because the bottom of it was below the knicker line.
‘I think I took agreement as implied.
There was no complaint about it.
I do not specifically remember asking her did she mind that.
‘
Dr Harding Price said that only once did the girl, from Cleethorpes, ask to put her clothes back on and he refused because he had not finished examining her.
Asked by Mr Fortune if he felt it was insensitive, the doctor replied: ‘I did not regard that as particularly serious.
‘I was not sensitive to it, no.
In the light of this case I suppose I should, but there was no issue.
‘She had got the couch with blankets on.
She could have covered herself or dressed.
‘She did not seem particularly perturbed at the time.
‘
The doctor said that he could find no indication that the teenager had suffered a lasting physical injury in the accident and said he was ‘bewildered and perplexed by the whole thing.
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The doctor is also accused of behaving inappropriately to two other women.
But he rubbished claims from a 44-year-old that he mocked her about her lack of a sexual relationship with her husband.
The committee heard he went to the psychiatrist after her schizophrenic husband begun to have violent thoughts.
The doctor said that he felt that it was an important issue to establish the details of their sex life.
But he claimed that as he probed the matter the woman, referred to as Mrs Y, stormed out of the Lawn Medical Centre on March 10, 1998.
Dr Harding Price added: ‘She was not prepared to look at any explanation other than he was mentally ill.
‘She ruled anything else out, it was all him and his insanity.
‘I was not getting anywhere.
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The doctor also denied bombarding a third woman with questions about her sex life when she went to him with a throbbing head-ache.
The 27-year-old blonde has told how she visited Dr Harding Price while he was duty GP at the Grimsby Primary Care Centre in September 1999.
She alleged that she left the surgery in tears after he made crude remarks towards her.
But the psychiatrist claimed he was merely trying to establish the cause of her head-ache, pointing out that 82 percent are caused by psychological problems.
He told the committee: ‘I asked her about sex and she said she could live without it.
‘By then I was reasonably happy that I had to exclude any psychological causes.
‘
He said he asked about her family life and about her financial problems before realising that the reason for the head-ache was to do with her mental state.
The doctor added: ‘I asked her what made life worth living and she said nil.
‘I then asked her about her financial state to see if there were any problems there.
‘I concluded that this was primarily a psychological head-ache.
‘I said: ‘You are a fine lass – go off and see your GP and get it sorted out.
”
Asked if he demanded further details of her medical history, Dr Harding Price said it would have been ‘quite improper’ because she was not his patient and he did not want to be accused of ‘touting’ for work.
Harding-Price of Sewell Road, Lincoln, denies inappropriate behaviour and serious professional misconduct.
The hearing continues
ends
