A sex pest hospital worker has been struck off after a disciplinary hearing heard he groped a colleague in an operating theatre store room.
Kinross father-of-six Russell Bland left his victim feeling “violated” after grabbing her breasts at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, a panel of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) was told.
The 54-year-old had an important job looking after operating theatre machinery and preparing equipment for surgery. But a disciplinary hearing in Edinburgh this week heard that Mr Bland’s mind was on other things one day in January 2011.
A female colleague, giving evidence via video link, told how she was groped.
She said: “He came from behind and took both my breasts in his hands and shook them. I didn’t do anything at the time out of disbelief.”
The witness, whose voice cracked with emotion as she gave evidence, said there had been other incidents.
“I happened to be bending down to get something and he slipped his hand very quickly between my legs,” she said.
When asked how this made her feel, the women, referred to only as Colleague One, replied: “Violated”.
She continued: “There were times in the past where he came up, not just to me, and slapped you on the bottom.”
Both Mr Bland and his victim were employed as operating department practitioners (ODP) at the hospital.
The HCPC was told that the groping occurred despite Mr Bland and other colleagues receiving a stark warning about their behaviour.
Colleague One was off work for several months and was anxious about returning to work in the same place as Mr Bland. She wrote a letter to her manager, which was read out to the hearing.
In it, she said: “It is with great difficulty I write this. As long as I can remember I have received inappropriate contact from Russell Bland. By this I mean touching in inappropriate places when there’s no one else around.
“It’s extremely upsetting to disclose this information but I cannot return to work as I’m worried about him.
“I have never been able to speak about this before as I was not in a mental position to do so. His actions would make me freeze in fear.”
Stuart Sommerville, Mr Bland’s line manager at the hospital, said Colleague One was not alone.
He said: “There had been a number of comments made by various nurses, domestics and support workers about his closeness and his touchy-feelyness. But no one would put it in writing.”
Mr Sommerville said that in a meeting around three years before the new allegations emerged, he gave the ODPs a “brutal” message that inappropriate behaviour was not acceptable.
Mr Bland was sacked at an NHS Fife disciplinary hearing in December 2011.
Charges relating to three other female colleagues were dropped after the HCPC found the women did not want to discuss the matter further after an initial interview.
Announcing the panel’s decision to strike off Mr Bland, chairman William Nelson said: “Conduct of this kind falls well below that expected. Mr Bland’s description of it as ‘horseplay’ betrays a lack of insight into behaviour which is unacceptable and highly offensive, both to the person concerned and to the wider public.”
Mr Bland was not present and not represented at the hearing. However, he has previously denied the allegations and said they were motivated by anti-English racism.
Explaining his position on the charges he faced, he has said: “This has been a pack of lies right from the word go, but I can’t prove it and have not been given the chance to prove it.”
NHS Fife declined to comment, except to confirm that Mr Bland no longer works for the health authority.