A GYNAECOLOGIST who almost killed a pregnant woman during a botched abortion also tried to seduce nurses by offering them a ride in his range of flashy cars, the General Medical Council (GMC) was told yesterday.

Consultant Andrew Gbinigie, 47, who had worked in four North-East hospitals, will learn today if he will be struck off for allegedly operating beyond his competence in a Birmingham clinic.

The hearing was also told that Dr Gbinigie, married with children, sexually harassed two colleagues at a previous job in Stourbridge.

The GMC heard how he caused horrific internal injuries to a 21-year-old woman on his first day in the clinic, in November 2000.

He was said to have torn a "massive" hole in her womb, removed an ovary and pulled down a piece of bowel before realising his mistake. It was Dr Gbinigie's fourth bungled termination that day.

The scale of the damage has never been seen before in British medical history, the hearing was told.

The GMC's conduct committee will today decide whether he is guilty of serious professional misconduct and whether to take any action against his registration.

He had only carried out a small number of terminations of larger foetuses over 14 weeks's old after arriving in England in 1984 to take his first job as a senior house officer with the Dartford and Gravesend Health Authority.

He later worked at Ashington Hospital in Northumberland, the County General and Maternity Hospital in Carlisle, Cumbria, University Hospital in Hartlepool, Royal Oldham Hospital in Lancashire, the South Tyneside District Hospital, and Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary, between 1986 and 1995.

Dr Gbinigie had only taken up the part-time abortion work after being suspended from the Wordsley Hospital, in Stourbridge, in July 2000.

He resigned on October 27 before a disciplinary investigation into complaints of sexual harassment on two female colleagues.

A midwife told the hearing that the doctor locked her inside his office and groped her.

And an audit nurse told how the doctor asked her out and twice tried to kiss her when the pair were alone.

Dr Gbinigie also tried to seduce the nurses by offering to give them a ride in his cars, including a TVR and a Mazda MX5, the inquiry heard.

Dr Gbinigie, of Barnt Green, Birmingham, denies serious professional misconduct. The hearing is expected to finish today.