A ‘dishevelled’ former doctor and alcoholic who stalked Abi Titmuss and ‘put patients at risk’ is appealing to a panel in Manchester to have his medical licence restored.
Shibley Rahman was struck off the medical register in 2006 after he was issued a harassment order from police for hounding the former nurse and turning up at her home on several occasions.
After eight years, Rahman is now appealing to to have his medical licence retored.
At a restorative hearing which began today, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel heard how Rahman, diagnosed with alcholism, frequently came into work looking ‘dishevelled’ and smelling of alcohol.
Ms Elizabeth Dudley-Jones, representing the General Medial Council, also told the panel how colleagues expressed concern of Rahman’s lack of medical insight.
She read a statement from a former colleague of Rahman’s who claimed he displayed a ‘lack of clinical knowledge and insight’, and was ‘putting patients at risk’.
The panel also heard in detail of Rahman’s stalking campaign against Ms Titmuss, that left the aspiring actress ‘terrified’.
In a statement read out at the hearing, the former glamour model said Rahman had initially contacted her by letter in July 2004.
“The first letter was very kind and pleasant,” she said. “He seemed eloquent and intelligent.”
However, her statement went on to say the doctor began to ring her agent and sent ‘incessant’ text messages, at one point up to 20 times a day.
On one occasion in 20014, Rahman followed Titmuss into a shower block in nurse’s accommodation.
Ms Titmuss worked at London’s University College Hospital from 1998 to December 2003, but stayed in nurses’ accommodation until 2004 as she pursued her acting career.
She claimed he then started to visit the nurses’ accommodation where she lived, where he would wait sometimes ‘all day’.
“Eventually, I had to tell reception not to tell Dr Rahman I was in,” Ms Titmuss said.
The final time she met the doctor, he was at her door as she returned from a communal bathroom, the panel was told.
“I tried to get past him. He was very close to me,” she said.
“He started banging on the door and shouting. He was quite abusive and I told him he was upsetting me.”
Dr Rahman left, but appeared in the bathroom a short time later while Titmuss was taking a shower, the panel heard.
She fled to her bedroom, where she rang her agent who, in turn, called the police.
At one point she opened the door to see if he had left only to find him sat on the floor on his laptop, the panel was told.
Officers took Rahman away and gave him a formal warning against harassing Ms Titmuss again.
A police statement said Rahman had ‘clearly’ been drinking prior to entering the nurses’ accommodation.
The panel was told that Rahman had told police he had decided he wanted to help Ms Titmuss, who he felt had been unfairly treated by the media.
He believed he could help her due to his status as a doctor, the heard.
Despite receiving a formal warning after the incident, Rahman continued to pester Ms Titmuss’ agent, prompting police to issue a harassment order and the General Medical Council to launch a misconduct hearing.
The panel heard a number of statements from colleagues of Rahman, as well as medical assessments on his own state of health.
Rahman, who was a senior house officer (SHO) at Hammersmith Hospital, increasingly looked ‘dishevelled’, at work, according to several statements read to the panel.
She read a number of statements which questioned Rahman’s medical expertise.
His applied knowledge and work ethic was described as ‘sub-standard’, the panel heard.
One colleague said he lacked ‘basic knowledge that a student should know’.
One statement said: “I can honestly say of all the SHO’s we’ve had in my 15 years, Rahman has been the worst.”
Rahman’s alcohol consumption had also been noticed on a number of occasions, with colleagues and patients claiming to have smelt it on his breath during working hours.
A medical report said Rahman was alcohol dependant, and claimed he ‘was not fit to treat patients’.
The report also claimed that alcohol was the prime factor behind Rahman’s irrational behaviour.
The same medical report claimed Rahman also suffered from Hypomania, a mood state characterized by persistent disinhibition and pervasive elevated or irritable moods.
The hearing continues.
Main images courtesy of Dating Data, and Shibley Rahman, via YouTube, with thanks.
