A 61-YEAR-OLD osteopath used a secret camera disguised as a pen to film
consensual sexual behaviour, a judge was told on Thursday.
The pen, obtained from the internet, had been hidden in a tub of pens on a
shelf in his treatment room at Liverpool.
Michael Hammond, 61, of Llangoed, Anglesey, pleaded guilty to voyeurism and
was given a six months jail sentence suspended for 18 months and must carry
out 150 hours of unpaid work, with a 50-day rehabilitation requirement.
Judge Huw Rees told him at Caernarfon crown court: "You have also showed a
tendency to make current or former patients your partners which shows lack
of definition between your professional life and private life."
He had degraded a hapless victim who was unaware of the filming, said the
judge.
What happened on a date between January 2007 and December 2009 was not full
intercourse and Karl Scholz, prosecuting, said the woman had not been
identified. The video was discovered by an ex partner who had reported it to
the police.
Last month a jury at a retrial in the same court had cleared Hammond of
sexually touching another woman patient at his Anglesey clinic in May 2016
by rubbing her breasts and nipples, which he had denied.
Mr Scholz said the voyeurism involved what happened when he massaged and
rubbed cream on to the victim then cleaned it off, having pulled down her
knickers and undone her bra.
Hammond had been suspended by the General Osteopathic Council and a
disciplinary inquiry would follow the sentence.
Paulinus Barnes, defending, said : "As a result of this offence he's now
had to close his business, his career is over and he's lost potential
income."
The barrister said : "He says he knows and knew from the outset that this
was disgraceful and that if she knew what had taken place she would have
been horrified. He's genuinely remorseful." The footage had not been
uploaded to the internet, he pointed out.
Judge Rees said what happened was disgraceful, the video showed him move his
hands inside her bra, eventually performing a sexual act and the woman
responding.
"Unbelievably the camera was in a pen in a tub full of pens on the shelf of
the treatment room," he said.
He had encouraged the woman into an intimate
sexual act and by filming deceitfully and slyly had abused her dignity and
privacy.
The judge, who ordered destruction of the footage, described it as "an
entirely degrading episode."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article