GMC finds Titmuss stalker guilty

Dr Shibley Rahman said he wanted a romantic relationship

A doctor who admitted harassing television star Abi Titmuss has been found guilty of misconduct by a General Medical Council tribunal.

Dr Shibley Rahman bombarded the former nurse with messages before sneaking into the accommodation block she lived in and confronting her as she showered.

Dr Rahman admitted harassment and practising poor medical skills, but had denied charges of misconduct.

He told the hearing he had hoped to develop a "romantic" relationship.

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

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 e-mails and contacted her agent to arrange a meeting.

Eventually he visited her in July 2004 at the nurses' accommodation block where she lived.

Abi Titmuss was living in a nurses' block at the time of the incident

He chatted briefly with her after a chance encounter before returning around one-and-a-half hours later, then he presented her with a bunch of flowers.

Some hours later he returned for a third time after he had been drinking and waited for her outside her room.

She returned to her bedroom, but did not stop to talk to the doctor. He then became aggressive and began banging on her door and shouting.

"I think she then shut the door and hoped I would go away," Dr Rahman had told the hearing.

He had then told how he followed Ms Titmuss into the washroom and began banging on the door of her shower cubicle.

Ms Titmuss contacted her agent who called the police. They arrived at the accommodation block a short time later.

Asked how he felt about his behaviour now, Dr Rahman said: "Well I think embarrassed is an understatement. It was a total breach of social norms."

GMC chairman Brian Alderman said Dr Rahman's misconduct was "wide-ranging and fundamental", involving several breaches of good medical practice.

"The panel takes the view that your actions in relation to Ms Titmuss, who was a stranger to you and who you put in terror, is conduct not becoming of a doctor and is likely to bring the medical profession into disrepute," he said.