Titmuss stalker hoped for romance

Dr Shibley Rahman said he wanted to offer Abi Titmuss support

A doctor who admitted harassing TV star Abi Titmuss said he hoped to develop a "romantic" relationship with her, a disciplinary hearing has been told.

Dr Shibley Rahman said he realised such an outcome had "no realistic basis".

He has admitted harassment and practising poor medical skills but denies charges of misconduct before the General Medical Council.

He told the hearing in Manchester that his behaviour was "a total breach of social norms".

Dr Rahman was a senior house officer at the Royal Brompton Hospital when the incidents began happening in July 2004.

He has since had an arranged marriage with a Bangladeshi woman. He is due to be sentenced on 21 July for assaulting his wife.

Emails

He told the hearing that he had seen coverage of Ms Titmuss in newspapers and felt it had been unfair.

He said he wanted to offer her support and get to know her better. He began sending her emails and contacted her agent to arrange a meeting.

"On reflection I was hoping that it might have turned out to be something on a more constructive basis.

"It might have progressed from there."

Abi Titmuss called her agent for help, Dr Rahman said

"Progressed on a romantic basis?" asked his lawyer George Hugh-Jones.

"Yes," Dr Rahman said.

He described the night he visited her in the nurses' accommodation block where she lived.

After a chance meeting, he returned with flowers, and then later returned after drinking to wait outside her room.

When she returned to her bedroom, she did not talk to him and he became aggressive.

When she opened her door, Dr Rahman said: "I think she looked horrified.

"Obviously a combination of someone banging on her door for half-an-hour and then when she opened the door and knew it was me and not one of her friends she was reasonably and obviously terrified.

"This was the first time she had shown absolute horror."

Police

He followed her into the shower room and banged on the door of her shower cubicle, prompting Ms Titmuss to call her agent for help.

The police then arrived.

Dr Rahman said of his reaction to his behaviour: "I think embarrassed is an understatement. It was a total breach of social norms."

He could be struck off the medical register if found guilty of misconduct. The hearing continues in Manchester.