Doctor is struck off by GMC for misconduct

Michael Donnelly, 54, harassed a Scottish consultant with phone calls, letters and visits after she called off their three-year affair.

Donnelly was later sacked from his £55,000 consultancy job in Sunderland when it was discovered he had forged sicknotes to see her.

He was convicted of breaching the peace and banned from contacting the woman, who worked at Ninewells Hospital, in Dundee, for five years.

Mary Clark-Glass, chairman of the conduct committee of the General Medical Council (GMC), told Donnelly he showed "arrogance and self deceit" in continually breaching restrictions placed upon him.

She said: "We believe the convictions taken by themselves would by themselves amount to serious professional misconduct.

You showed blatant disregard for the system of registration which is designed to maintain the safety of patients.

"The findings against you reflect such a serious breach that the committee is obliged to take action in the public interest.

"You continued to work as a medical practitioner and applied for such a post even after your registration was suspended. We have directed that your name be erased from the register."

Donnelly, a former lecturer at Newcastle University, is now homeless, unemployed and living apart from his wife.

Donnelly had been sacked from his job in Sunderland Health Authority in 1998 for taking unauthorised time off work and found work as a doctor at Holme House Prison and the Northern Slimming Clinic.

He was suspended by the GMC in August 2000.

But he failed to tell employers of his earlier sacking and was convicted at Teesside Crown Court in May last year of three charges of fraud by falsely passing himself off as a fully registered doctor.

Donnelly also deliberately misled other potential employers by failing to mention his interim suspension or his work at the prison and slimming clinic.

He denied serious professional misconduct.