Dentist flashed leopard-print thong at nurse

A dentist today admitted groping a young nurse and flashing his leopard-print thong at a second but told a disciplinary tribunal he did not mean to upset them.

Anthony Barton said he did touch his then 22-year-old assistant on the bottom on three consecutive days but he denied groping her between the legs and said that he thought she had seen it as "a bit of fun".

He also told the General Dental Council he pulled down the waistband of his trousers to reveal a glimpse of a "joke" thong to amuse another dental nurse after they discussed what he wore on the beach.

He also admitted he would regularly strip to the waist in his treatment room in front of his dental nurse in order to change into his dentist's tunic before he started work.

But he denied accusations that he had asked a nurse if her breasts were real, squeezed her thigh or asked her if she shaved her pubic hair.

Married Mr Barton, who worked at the Red Rose Dental Group in Wigan, said he did say to the same nurse: "If you want a bit of fun you know where I am," but he denied he was asking her for casual sex and said it was meant as a joke.

"At the time I didn't believe that she took it any other way than that."

He also admitted that during an affair with one of his four dental nurses the pair had oral sex in the surgery after hours around 20 times and full intercourse on two occasions.

But he said: "I can say now looking back that that was totally inappropriate and is not the type of thing I'd ever want to repeat."

Of the incident in which he groped his nurse's bottom, he said: "I thought at the time that she had consented. I was not aware that she was upset by any of it. It was a bit cheeky but at no time did I want it to progress any further.

"I had had an affair and I truly regret it. I wouldn't want it to happen again and I did not view her in that way particularly."

Of her claim that on the third occasion that he touched her bottom he also grabbed her forcefully between the legs, he said: "I never intentionally touched anything more than her bottom but if she did feel that had happened it could only be my fingertips brushing past."