Blackpool GP struck off after groping mentally ill woman and kissing her 'forcefully' in seat of his car

Dr Goksel Celikkol, 76, who worked at the Grange Park Health Centre on Dinmore Avenue, was struck off by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service on March 17 after an investigation proved he had touched the woman inappropriately during an appointment in November 1999.

He then invited her for lunch, the hearing found, ‘because he was interested in developing a sexual relationship with her, following his sexually motivated touching of her.’

He also knew that she was likely to be isolated and vulnerable after being dropped off at the surgery alone by her ex-partner, and that she had a history of mental health problems.

READ: Lurid details of accusations against 'sexually motivated' Blackpool doctor revealed at hearing

The woman, known as Patient A, said: “I was in floods of tears and I was asking him to help me as I was very depressed and lonely… Dr Celikkol prescribed me more anti-depressants and asked me out for lunch with him. I agreed as I naively thought he asked me as he could see how alone I was, I did not think he would make any physical advances towards me.

"I think it was a few days later that we went out for lunch. We went to a restaurant and had a nice lunch and when we got back into his car afterwards he kissed me and I was gobsmacked. I don’t recall any conversation we had, but he was very forceful. I was sitting on the passenger seat and he was leaning right over into the passenger seat so I felt I had no choice but to kiss him. I think he drove me home and dropped me home after that. We had exchanged numbers that day.”

The pair began a sexual relationship which lasted from October 1999 until August 2000, during which time Celikkol prescribed Patient A with medication which put her at risk of increased dependency and overdose. This continued beyond the end of their relationship until 2007.

She said: “I hated the situation…..he was about 30 years older than me so I had no attraction to him whatsoever… I just felt I was trapped in a situation I had no idea how to get out of. This carried on for about six months and then I decided the only way to make it stop was to literally leave the country.”

She added: “I didn’t want to have sex but I felt trapped in a situation I didn’t know how toget out of because he was also prescribing me with medication that I really needed at that time.”

Celikkol was found to have committed serious misconduct by abusing his professional position and failing to provide good clinical care.

It was submitted on his behalf that he was no longer in practice at the time of the hearing, and no longer had a licence to practise, though he remained on the NHS list of all medical performers.

But the Tribunal instead ruled to erase him from the medical register, concluding: “This was not a single serious breach of good medical practice. The totality of the matters found by the Tribunal points to Dr Celikkol’s misconduct being fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.”