A physiotherapist broke down in tears when he repeatedly told a misconduct hearing he would never intimately touch a female patient without her consent.

Yves Dereix, 58, of Ilkley, is accused of putting his hand into the underwear of a married woman who came to him for treatment.

Mr Dereix, who is suspended, appeared before the Health Professionals Council (HPC) on Friday, the third day of the misconduct hearing for sex allegations against four former patients.

They include touching women intimately, offering them unnecessary internal examinations, making a sexually suggestive comment and failing to give them anywhere private to undress.

Julie Norris, representing the HPC, alleged that with one of the women - known only by the initials FN Mr Dereix, put his hand in her lower underwear and touched her intimately without her consent, a claim he vehemently denied to the hearing panel.

Choking back tears, the married father-of-three said: "I never, never did."

"To be considered a sex offender is unbelievable. I had my son downstairs waiting for his appointment.

"Do you honestly imagine that I would do it with my son waiting downstairs?"

French national Mr Dereix, of Beverley Rise, Ilkley, told the hearing at the Queen's Hotel, Leeds, that the patient had misheard his instructions.

He had actually said the exercises were for him to "re-assess" her condition, he told the panel.

He added: "It may have been a problem of communication."

Mr Dereix said giving internal examinations could be a legitimate treatment for certain conditions.

He said he had treated "scores" of patients using internal examination techniques he had learned in the mid-1980s while studying osteopathy in France.

The hearing was adjourned yesterday and the panel is expected to make a decision at a later date. The resumed hearing is expected to take place in London.

3:33pm Monday 12th May 2008

Print

Email this