Gynaecologist guilty of sexual misconduct against patients

A consultant gynaecologist was struck off yesterday after being found guilty of sexual misconduct against two female patients, including a 73-year-old woman.

A consultant gynaecologist was struck off yesterday after being found guilty of sexual misconduct against two female patients, including a 73-year-old woman.

Sebastian Borges, 50, was removed from the medical register after a General Medical Council committee found him guilty of serious professional misconduct. The offences involved an assault on the 73-year-old, referred to as Mrs C, when he approached her from behind and placed his hands on her breasts underneath her blouse. He was also alleged to have placed his penis on her thigh.

In the second case, he was found guilty of using a probe in an unnecessarily suggestive manner. He had been examining a Mrs A, a pregnant midwife at his hospital, and behaved inappropriately when he inserted a probe into her vagina.

The offences occurred when Mr Borges was working at Caithness General Hospital in Wick, north-east Scotland, in the mid-1990s. However, the GMC committee threw out two other allegations by a 50-year-old woman and her daughter that he had fondled their breasts.

Mr Borges reacted furiously when the announcements were made in London yesterday afternoon. As Sir Donald Irvine, the committee chairman, read out the judgment, Mr Borges burst out: "This council has made a terrible mistake. I'm totally innocent of this."

He had earlier claimed the allegations against him were part of a campaign of victimisation after he was cleared at Wick sheriff court of three indecent assault charges in 1998, including one involving a 16-year-old girl. None of the allegations heard by the GMC were made until after that trial.