A DISCIPLINARY tribunal is trying to hush up details of an alleged affair between a mental health nurse and her patient.
Linda May Thomson face 19 charges of misconduct including having a sexual relationship with a psychiatric patient at Royal Cornhill Hospital, Aberdeen.
The 47-year-old nurse faces being struck off amid allegations of drinking cava with the man, visiting pubs and going to football matches with him.
The charges, which relate to 2009, say they had a “sexual relationship”, “kissed on one or more occasion” and “engaged in sexual touching on more than one occasion.”
Thomson, who worked in the hospital’s Corgarf ward, is further charged with staying overnight at the man’s house and accepting a key to his flat.
But the Conduct and Competence Committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has ordered that the case, which started in Edinburgh today, is held behind closed doors.
The panel said it may never reveal the outcome of the hearing and flatly refused even to disclose why the proceedings are being held in secret.
Despite their efforts to hush up the case, the patient himself has released a detailed account of his alleged affair with Thomson.
The man, who has asked not to be identified, has handed over minutes of a meeting between himself and senior hospital managers during which he made his claims.
He told managers: “It became a sexual relationship after a nice slow platonic relationship as I got back to good health.
“Saturday 28 February was the first time we had sex in Linda’s house.
“But another date put it sort of into the stratosphere. A night I will never forget Tuesday 17 February when we went to see Aberdeen v East Fife and coming back to my house we cuddled and embraced for the first time with feeling.”
He added: “I just got my new teeth then and I think of myself at that time. I had lost my teeth in the ward, needed a haircut and how could anybody like me in the hospital?
“I was forever getting into arguments with patients and the circumstances of me coming into the ward were horrendous.
“Yet God bless her Linda still liked me.”
The pair also went to Perth in April 2009, he claimed.
He continued: “She was utterly obsessed with our relationship being discovered and I didn’t take in the risks to Linda’s job, career and future as much as she did.”
Alan Hansen
The patient said he and Ms Thomson went on outings for meals, films and the theatre in the early months of 2009.
They saw the Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie, about the Von Stauffenberg plot to assassinate Hitler, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt.
He said: “We went so see ‘Brief Encounter’ play at [His Majesty’s Theatre]. That was the best day of all.”
Ms Thomson had keys to his flat, the patient said.
He said he gave the nurse a framed picture of football pundit Alan Hansen along with a love letter as a token of his affection.
“She liked Alan Hansen so much and I made a framed picture of that and wrapped it up and she appreciated both gifts.”
The patient said their relationship ended at the end of April 2009, but he stayed in touch.
Describing a meeting he had with her in May, he said: “We had a really nice walk and cuddle and kiss and Linda said, ‘You can’t help who you fall in love with,’ meaning her and me.
“Then we kissed and she said “you’ve got to let it go.'”
A spokeswoman for the NMC said it could not reveal why the Edinburgh hearing was being held in private.
She said: “We can’t comment on individual cases. We can’t give any specific details.”
The spokeswoman added that the NMC may never reveal the outcome of the case. She said: “If it doesn’t appear then the panel will have decided to keep it private.”
The NMC said Ms Thomson was not present at today’s hearing.
