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Nurse struck off over sex with patient
By
Staff Reporter
THIS
is the face of shamed Zimbabwean psychiatric nurse Denford Kasinganeti
who was kicked out of the profession in England last Friday following
a sexual relationship with a vulnerable mental health patient on a hospital
ward.
Kasinganeti, 32, kissed the young brunette, touched her breasts and tried to have sex with her in a linen cupboard, the nursing and midwifery council heard.
He also visited her flat for sex and warned her not to contact him at the Queen Elizabeth 11 Hospital in Welwyn Garden City, where he was working at the time.
Striking the Zimbabwean nurse off, council chairwoman Nancy Kirkland said: “You have been found guilty of misconduct in respect of two very serious charges.
“By conducting an abusive sexual relationship with a vulnerable patient over a period of eight months you acted in a way that is fundamentally incompatible with your profession as a nurse.
“You abused your position by initiating and continuing a totally inappropriate relationship with a vulnerable patient in your care.”
She added: “You aggravated your wrong doing by continuously denying that the relationship took place at one time when Miss A was a patient in your care and therefore subjecting her to the ordeal of this hearing.”
His victim made a formal complaint against him in February 2003.
Kasinganeti denied two counts of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with the patient between October 2001 and December 2002.
He has most recently been working as a community psychiatric nurse in Luton.
The married father-of-one who lives in Stevenage admitted he had sex with the woman, a self harmer, but claimed it was only before she was admitted to hospital after meeting her at a pub.
Giving evidence in February this year, Miss A, 24, broke down as she told how Kasinganeti tried to have sex with her in a hospital linen cupboard at a mental health unit where she was a patient.
The woman said: "He pulled me towards him, started kissing me and put his hands under my top."
The hearing was told that Ms A, who was studying for a degree, had been admitted to the hospital on numerous occasions suffering from depression and incidents of self harm.
She said that on the day of the linen cupboard incident she had gone to the hospital after being urged to attend by police who were worried about her condition.
She said she went to the nurses' office in the early hours of the morning and saw Kasinganeti.
"He was asking me about how I was generally. He said he'd like to see me at some point - he basically asked me out. I was shocked and flattered," said Ms A.
"I wanted to go to bed, so I asked if I could have some pyjamas. I followed him to the linen cupboard, a walk-in cupboard which wasn't very big.
"Kasinganeti opened it, walked in, I followed him and he pulled me towards him and started kissing .I responded, kissing him. At that time of my life I thought I'd always be by myself."
However, she said she told him they would be caught. She said she had wanted to tell someone about it but did not think she would be believed.
Later she said Kasinganeti had gone to her bed and said goodnight and she had given him her telephone number.
She said that Kasinganeti had visited her flat five or six times after the initial incident in April 2002 and "almost always had sex".
Ms A added: "He was wary of going out in the locale because he knew he was having a relationship with a patient."
She emphatically
denied initially meeting Kasinganeti in a pub, saying: "We met
in the mental health unit."
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