Doctor used hidden camera to film woman wearing a short skirt in city centre, tribunal told

Steven Forde, 45, a married father-of-three, was caught with a satchel containing a device with a telescopic lens to capture footage through a hole in the front.

The bag was equipped with a 'fire switch' so Forde, a consultant anaesthetist at York Hospital, could turn the camera on and off with his hand in the front pouch.

Forde, of York Road in Haxby, was arrested on May 9 last year on suspicion of outraging public decency. He was cleared in court when the CPS offered no evidence, but he is now facing a medical tribunal and has admitted following the woman and capturing video footage of her legs, skirt and body without consent for a sexual motive.

He admitted he had done it before and he had other images of women at home, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard.

Police had found other clandestine video recordings on his home computer. During a trust investigation Forde admitted this type of behaviour happened the 'majority of the time once or twice a week' and 'more in the summer months', it was said.

Forde was suspended from the GMC register and given a formal warning by hospital bosses after the allegations emerged, but was allowed back to work in March under conditions and resumed full duties in August. The Fitness to Practice hearing in Manchester will rule whether he should be struck off.

Mark Ainsworth, defending at the hearing on Monday, said Forde admitted the offences and had been receiving treatment for the factors underlying his behaviour.

Forde denies his ability to work as a doctor is affected by misconduct.

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She said Forde, who joined York Hospital in 2000, was spotted acting suspiciously by a security guard in the city centre on 9 May 2013.

Ms Tahta said: "He was carrying a large laptop style bag, hanging over his right arm and had his right hand inside the front pouch of that bag.

"He was seen to turn his body to the right and left while holding the satchel bag with his right hand inside.

"When a young lady who was wearing a short skirt went past he was seen to follow her for about four metres and he appeared to lean back. He was directly behind and continued to follow her while getting closer to her."

Forde told the hearing stress in his professional life in the first months of 2013 contributed to the incident.

He said: "They were very stressful and it was a crescendo sort of situation. As time went on the pressure mounted because of various events I was involved in."

The former RAF medic – who served in Bosnia and Kosovo in the late 1990s – said he was involved in treating a three-week-old baby who died just weeks before his arrest.

Asked by defence barrister, Mark Ainsworth, if he was using this to justify his behaviour, he said: 'It does not justify what I did. In my mind it was the stresses inhibiting me from dealing with the behaviour that was causing this."

On 9 May 2013 Forde had been working at York Hospital until midnight and was on call until 8am.

He was a keen photographer and said he took his camera to some woodland a few miles away to take scenic photographs, such as spring flowers.

He said: "I then went into the city centre. I was going away with friends for the weekend. I was going to play hockey with some friends."

He said he took his camera into the city along with one lens used for capturing 'distant objects'.

"It was in the bottom of the bag I was carrying over my shoulder,' Forde said.

"It was a messenger-type bag. It had a side pouch with the camera in the bottom of it. There was an aperture cut at the front for the lens to see through and the lens was covered with the filter.

"There was a digital viewfinder plugged into the camera hidden inside the pouch of the bag.

"The filter was to conceal the end of it so if someone looked at it they would not see what was behind it. It looks like a piece of black plastic.'

Forde told the panel that he used the 'live view' mode, with his hand in the side pouch to operate the digital view finder and said he recorded a woman walking down the pavement.

He said: "The phrase 'legs, skirt and body' came from what the security guard told police. I also recorded her hands, head, feet, fingers – it was a full length video."

Forde said a security guard ran across the street and said: 'I'm detaining you for voyeurism.'

He said: "I felt my world had collapsed. I felt this was the end, that's it."

Under the conditions imposed by York Hospital, he is barred from examining female patients without a chaperone, 'except in life-threatening situations'.

He is also prohibited from undertaking unaccompanied formal meetings with female trainees in his role as Training Programme Director with York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Evidence related to Forde's specific 'health condition' will be heard behind closed doors.