{"id":40742,"date":"2025-11-07T08:47:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/suffolk-doctor-sexually-harassed-junior-colleague-tribunal-told\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T08:47:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:47:01","slug":"suffolk-doctor-sexually-harassed-junior-colleague-tribunal-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/suffolk-doctor-sexually-harassed-junior-colleague-tribunal-told\/","title":{"rendered":"Suffolk doctor sexually harassed junior colleague, tribunal told"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Dr Mark Watson’s actions consisted of sexual harassment, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service said<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A doctor accused of pouring beer down a younger colleague’s cleavage before licking it off and touching her breasts has been suspended for a year. <\/p>\n

Dr Mark Johnson, who was working at West Suffolk Hospital at the time of the incident, also allegedly sent “derogatory and sexually demeaning” messages to another junior colleague.<\/p>\n

Some of these messages included comments about the size of his colleague’s breasts, sex positions and oral sex, a tribunal was told.<\/p>\n

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPT) said some of Dr Johnson’s actions constituted sexual harassment and suspended him from practising for 12 months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During the hearing the General Medical Council (GMC) representative argued Dr Johnson should be banned indefinitely from the profession.<\/p>\n

The MPT panel, however, concluded his “conduct was not persistent nor was it a pattern of predatory behaviour” and that he was “capable of remediation”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dr Watson was working at West Suffolk Hospital at the time of the incidents<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Dr Johnson joined West Suffolk Hospital as a consultant in 2013, before leaving 10 years later following disciplinary proceedings.<\/p>\n

The panel heard he sent sexual and inappropriate messages to a junior colleague about other colleagues between November 2018 and November 2019.<\/p>\n

During a work Christmas party in December 2022, Dr Johnson moved his hand up and down a colleague’s back, blew smoke from a vape in her face and kissed her.<\/p>\n

Then he was said to have tipped some of his drink onto the junior colleague’s cleavage before licking it from her skin.<\/p>\n

The GMC suggested this was “a grave violation” of her “dignity”, while the MPT said his actions were “sexually motivated and constituted sexual harassment”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The MPT ruled the conduct of Dr Johnson, who is now employed at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, was “inherently serious, deliberate, and sexually motivated”.<\/p>\n

While it concluded his fitness to practise was impaired, it said he had “developed meaningful insight” and “embedded sustainable behavioural change”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dr Richard Goodwin, the medical director at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We referred Dr Johnson to the GMC following an internal process, prompted by reports of potential sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n

“We’re committed to eradicating sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace by promoting a culture that fosters openness and transparency, and never tolerates unwanted, harmful or inappropriate sexual behaviours.”<\/p>\n

The Royal Sussex County Hospital has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rawlstock\/Getty Images Dr Mark Watson’s actions consisted of sexual harassment, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service said A doctor accused of pouring beer down a younger colleague’s cleavage before licking it off and touching her breasts has been suspended for a year. Dr Mark Johnson, who was working at West Suffolk Hospital at the time of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[7445,1303,4524,3764,11554,4792,99,7845],"class_list":["post-40742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-colleague","tag-doctor","tag-harassed","tag-junior","tag-sexually","tag-suffolk","tag-told","tag-tribunal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40744,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40742\/revisions\/40744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}