Friday, June 09, 2006

Sex attack Psych doctor banned for another year

As reported in the Craven Herald & Pioneer in Great Britain.

A psychiatrist jailed for a sex attack on a teenager, in which he thrashed her with a metal coat hanger, will be banned from practising medicine for another year for public protection.

Dr Darren Scott Holdsworth was working as a senior house officer at Glasgow's Stobhill Hospital, in November 2001, when he was arrested and charged with rape, indecent assault and possession of drugs by Strathclyde Police.

Holdsworth, of Tudor Cottage, Low Utley, Keighley, pleaded guilty to indecent assault and possession of cannabis at Glasgow High Court, in October 2002. The rape charge was not proceeded with. Sacked from his job at the hospital, he was jailed for three years in November 2002, but the sentence was later reduced on appeal and he has now been freed.

An interim suspension order preventing him from practising was due to expire this month, prompting a dash to the High Court by doctors' regulatory body the General Medical Council (GMC).

Holdsworth had initially opposed a continued ban on him practising and was due to do battle against the GMC, at London's High Court, last Friday. But, at the outset of the hearing, Mr Justice Langstaff said the parties had agreed by consent that the ban would be extended for a year and that Dr Holdsworth would not have to pay court costs.

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