Emmanuel Kanu (pictured above),a Nigerian and doctor by profession,
who touched the breast of a vulnerable
divorcee woman in her home days after
she'd attempted suicide will be keeping his job after citing cultural
differences......Read the gist below...
‘’Dr Emmanuel Kanu stroked her breast, repeatedly tried to
kiss her and told her, 'You want it' when she tried to escape his clutches
during the visit - which he hid from colleagues. When she later texted him to
tell him to stop ringing her he withheld his number on the next call.
But Kanu, a married Nigerian father of one, has been allowed
to keep his job by a fitness to practise panel even though the General Medical
council called for him to be struck off.
He told the panel he had not molested the
patient and claimed 'cultural differences' led to the visit on September 3,
2011, saying: 'There is a clear divide between the doctor and the patient here,
which is very different in Nigeria.'
But the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service only
suspended the 36-year-old for six months, despite finding he was guilty of
sexually motivated serious misconduct.
Campaigners against violence towards women criticised the
'incredibly lenient penalty'. Nicole Westmarland, former chairman of Rape
Crisis and Professor of Criminology at Durham University, asked 'what it takes
for a doctor to be struck off'.
She said: 'This doctor has committed a number of sexual
offences on a woman who was in a very vulnerable position.
'A six-month suspension is an incredibly lenient penalty and
the question remains: what will happen within the six months that will
supposedly change his behaviour when he returns to work?'
The doctor, who had recently completed GP training and was
undergoing specialist training in psychiatry, was on a locum shift at the
A&E department of Darlington Memorial Hospital, County Durham, when the
divorcee was brought in after taking a 'substantial overdose'.
She was still recovering in an emergency ward bed when he
asked for her mobile number and then rang her when she was discharged five days
later to say he was 'thinking of her'.
He arranged to meet the mother-of-two, who cannot be named
for legal reasons, at her home in Darlington for what the woman believed was a
medical assessment.
But he asked to use her laptop and then viewed Facebook
photos of her as he sat next to her on a sofa.
A report into his actions stated that he put his arm around
her and stroked her chest. It added: 'She informed the panel she was
"scared, frozen to the spot" and said "I was unsure, he was a
doctor".
'She said when you saw the
picture of her [breast] feeding her son you said "They're big. Are they as
big as that now?" and squeezed her left breast.'
When she stormed off to
her kitchen Kanu followed her and kept trying to kiss her, saying at one point:
'I can see it in your eyes that you want it.'
Kanu, who qualified in
2005 from the University of Nigeria, called her after he left but the woman,
who was 43 at the time, texted: 'It was not right what you tried to do. You are
a doctor and I was your patient. I didn't want or asked to be touched by you.'
Kanu, who worked at
Borders General Hospital near his home in Melrose, Roxburghshire, was acquitted
of sexual assault at Durham Crown Court in 2012.
He
told the fitness to practise panel he had not molested the patient and claimed
'cultural differences' led to the visit on September 3, 2011, saying: 'There is
a clear divide between the doctor and the patient here, which is very different
in Nigeria.'
But this was dismissed as
not being a 'credible explanation'. The panel branded his behaviour
'deplorable' and 'unprofessional.'
Kanu denied any knowledge
of the case when approached by the Daily Mail. A spokesman for County Durham
and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust said Kanu was dismissed as soon as the
complaint came to light.
Source: UK Daily Mail
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