Greenwich: Molestation GP accidentally hired

Exclusive by Jules Cooper Friday, December 17, 2010
10:50 AM

Shocked staff at an NHS trust learnt their manager was once jailed for indecent assault of patients

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A former GP was sacked from his care trust job after his criminal past was uncovered via a social networking site.

Phillip Carman, who was jailed in 2003 for molesting patients, was sacked from his managerial position at NHS Greenwich in September after working there for almost a year, the Times can reveal.

The Australian had lied about his past convictions and was only uncovered when a victim saw him listed on the website LinkedIn as working for the Trust, at its Greenwich Park Street office, to develop new ways to work with GPs.

An employee at the Trust, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Times: “He didn’t make any attempt to hide the fact that he was struck off and made a big play of the fact that he was a doctor and therefore knew what he was talking about.

“Everyone was just shocked, people had been going to lunch with him not knowing about his past.”

Carman, 57, was jailed for a year for assaults that took place between 1983 and 2001 at the Stafford Place surgery where he was a partner.

Bristol Crown Court heard during his trial that Carman, who moved to the UK in 1983, had squeezed patients’ breasts, touched them inappropriately and tried to kiss them.

A jury returned guilty verdicts on nine counts of indecent assault against seven women.

Carman’s employment at the Greenwich Primary Care Trust will raise questions over the Trust’s hiring procedure. The former GP was hired via an agency which the Trust refused to name.

A spokesperson for NHS Greenwich said: “When we employ a temporary contractor through an employment agency, it is the responsibility of the agency to carry out Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks where these are necessary. However, Mr Carman had no contact with patients and was therefore not working with vulnerable adults or children, so the employment agency was not required to carry out a CRB check.

“The registration form which Mr Carman completed when he was first employed by the agency did ask him to disclose any previous criminal convictions. He did not do this.”