Disgraced Harley Street psychiatrist struck off for having sex with female patients has continued to make ‘ill-advised’ home visits to women

• Dr Theodore Soutzos, 51, was struck off by the General Medical Council in 2010
• The doctor ‘groomed’ three mental health patients at NHS and private clinics
• He has tried four times in six years to be reinstated onto the GMC register
• Soutzos is working as a freelance therapist and tells clients to call him ‘Dr Theo’

A disgraced Harley Street psychiatrist struck off for sleeping with his patients and preying on vulnerable woman has been continuing to make ‘ill-advised’ home visits, according to a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service report.

Dr Theodore Soutzos, 51, was found by the General Medical Council (GMC) to no longer be fit to practice in 2010 after he ‘groomed’ three mental health patients between 1999 and 2006 at NHS and private health clinics.

But the doctor now claims that he has ‘developed strict boundaries’ both in family life and now as a freelance therapist. He said he tells all of his clients call him ‘Dr Theo’. 

A panel heard at the time that Soutzos, who had been working at Guy’s Hospital, south London, had slept with a patient and then warned her not to tell anyone because his mother would ‘die’ and he would lose his career if anyone found out.

The 37-year-old woman then threw herself in the Thames, jumped in front of a police car and took five overdoses in 18 days.

Soutzos took his patients on trips to art galleries and even took one on a holiday to Greece.

But just last month, the former psychiatrist, from Ealing, west London, attempted – for the fourth time in six years – to be placed back on the GMC’s register. 

Dr Theodore Soutzos, 51, who was struck off in 2010 (pictured appearing before the committee) for having sex with female patients and preying on vulnerable women, has allegedly been making ‘ill-advised’ home visits to women

Soutzos was working at Guy’s Hospital, south London, at the time he was struck off back in 2010

Soutzos, who also attempted to be put back on the register in 2016, 2017, and 2018, said that he feels awful about what he had done and that if similar events happened to his close family members, he would be ‘so angry’.

However, the persistent doctor, who is not affiliated with any professional body as a therapist, was once again rejected.

Doctors who are struck off can be put back on the register if they convince a panel they have seen their failings and no longer pose a risk to patients. 

The disgraced doctor was finally found out after the patient with suicidal tendencies reported the incident to the police in 2005, where it was then referred to the medical council.

The two other patients involved were an 18-year-old and a 22-year-old. He took the latter, who suffered with bulimia, on a break to Athens.

The tribunal found that Soutzos’s behaviour ‘constituted a pattern of predatory and reprehensible sexual misconduct towards vulnerable patients’. 

The disgraced Harley Street doctor, who ‘groomed’ three patients between 1999 and 2006, is now working as a freelance therapist and says he has ‘developed strict boundaries’

In each case he was said to ‘elicit personal information’ from the women and shower them with compliments before arranging to meet at the National Gallery or Tate Gallery in London.

Soutzos charged up to £450 a session and also worked at The Priory, in Roehampton.

Soutzos was working at Guy’s Hospital when a 37-year-old woman referred to as Miss A was admitted to a psychiatric ward in January 1999.

The ‘talented’ former illustrator had nearly been killed by her violent ex-husband, was a heavy drinker and was suicidal, the hearing was told.

During their first consultation, the psychiatrist was ‘ fascinated’ by the woman and ‘unable to take his eyes off the patient’, Miss Plashkes said.

Last month, the former psychiatrist, from Ealing, west London, attempted – for the fourth time in six years – to be placed back on the GMC’s register

Two months later, Soutzos met her at the National Gallery as part of a ‘subterfuge’ to take ‘another small step which breached the doctor-patient boundary’.

He met the woman several times before telling her he had ‘ borderline girlfriends’ to ‘groom her for a physical relationship’.

The hearing was told that he touched her when they went swimming and, after driving her to his flat in St John’s Wood, north London, walked around in his underwear.

The pair then had sex at his apartment. Afterwards, Soutzos said he had to pick up his mother on the way to driving the patient back to her ward, it was said.

Miss Plashkes added: ‘When they reached the hospital, [the woman] asked him whether they were in a relationship.

‘He replied: “How can we be? I am a doctor and you are my patient.” He said that they needed to defuse the sexual tension that had built up… She was numb, traumatised, confused and disorientated.’

The following month Soutzos phoned her ‘almost hysterical’, saying it would ‘kill his mother and destroy his career if the details of their relationship came out’, the hearing was told.

The patient eventually told police in 2005, after her unsuccessful suicide attempts.

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