An Aberdeen paramedic has been struck off after exposing himself to a female colleague as she drove an ambulance.
In another “sexually motivated” incident, David Lee moved a colleague’s hand onto his groin while they were in the front of a vehicle taking a pregnant woman and midwife to hospital.
During another, he touched his genitals and asked a student ambulance technician to touch her breasts.
He appeared before a panel of the Health And Care Professionals Tribunal Service (HCPTS) last week, initially claiming he was the victim of a “witch hunt” and conspiracy against him.
But after being struck from the register, Mr Lee said he felt “remorse” and could “clearly see the impact of his actions”.
Mr Lee started working for the ambulance service as a technician in 2009, then registered as a paramedic in Aberdeen in 2015.
That same year a number of allegations were made against him relating to inappropriate behaviour, sparking a five-day trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
He was found not guilty on two charges, while 13 others were not proven, and he was later transferred to Peterhead.
He was suspended again amid allegations of impropriety in 2017, but was reinstated following disciplinary proceedings.
The HCPTS hearing lasted eight days and heard evidence from five witnesses.
It first heard from a woman known only as “colleague one”, who had been working with Mr Lee in June 2015.
They had been transporting a pregnant women from Aberdeen to Kirkcaldy and, during the drive, Mr Lee had moved the woman’s hand onto his groin.
Later, during a pit-stop at a McDonald’s restaurant, the panel heard he exposed himself.
Mr Lee claimed he had been in a relationship with the woman and several others at the time of the incident and, because of this, there was “no need” for actions such as these to have taken place during work.
The panel agreed evidence that he engaged in inappropriate conversation with another woman, “persistently” asking if she would pose as a nude model for art classes.
It also found allegations regarding another colleague to be proved – including that he requested she touch his genitals.
He was also accused of asking the woman if he could touch her chest, something she repeatedly refused.
The panel report said: “The registrant gave evidence that this certainly never happened to the best of his recollection and that it was not that kind of relationship.
“His evidence was that he had lots of other sexual relationships going on at that time and that he didn’t need to ask that.”
Another woman gave evidence saying Mr Lee had commented on her appearance and underwear.
On one occasion, he was alleged to have told her that he and his wife were in an open relationship.
Mr Lee was also said to have unbuttoned the woman’s epaulettes while she was driving, which she found “annoying, distracting and quite dangerous”.
Over the course of the same shift, he began trying to put disposable gloves down her top and then tried to put his hands inside her shirt.
And after attending to a patient, she told the panel Mr Lee shut the ambulance door, pulled the blinds and pushed her against the vehicle bulkhead “in a suggestive way”.
After being asked to unhand her, he said “it’s just a bit of fun”.
The panel found all of these allegations were proved, and said Mr Lee had “repeatedly treated junior female colleagues, all early in their employment with the ambulance service, in a degrading and disrespectful manner”.
It said: “Any remorse is self-centred with little regard for those who were directly affected by his behaviour.”
But the report added: “He said that he now felt shame for his actions and that this reinforced his desire not to repeat the behaviour.”
