A psychiatrist had an affair with a patient he was treating for severe depression, the General Medical Council heard today.

Dr Khalil Mohamed Fadel, of Summersdale, Chichester, is also accused of teasing another woman in his care, whom he was paying to clean his house, about being a victim of sexual abuse.

The Egyptian doctor, who was not at the hearing before the Professional Conduct Committee in London and has no legal representation, is accused of serious professional misconduct.

Lydia Barnfather, for the GMC, said that the first woman, known only as Ms X, first went to see Dr Fadel after suffering depression following the break-up of her marriage in May 1997.

Ms Barnfather said: "On her first visit she recalled the doctor asking her a long series of personal questions about her sexual history."

At the end of the he put his arms around the patient and told her he was going to "be her friend", it was alleged.

Ms Barnfather said Dr Fadel started to kiss Ms X during appointments and then began to telephone her and visit her home secretly. When her son started school after the summer holidays, "full sexual relations" began.

Ms Barnfather said: "He would go into the bedroom, strip, and sex would take place with a degree of brevity. He then went into the bathroom and washed."

She said Dr Fadel told Ms X about other patients, including the personal problems that a GP was having, and made fun of the difficulties faced by two people living in the same road as her.

She said Dr Fadel also asked Ms X, who was not well off, to do his ironing for him for 50p an item.

The relationship cooled at the start of 1998 after a row when they did not speak for several months, and she eventually stopped seeing him.

Ms Barnfather also told the hearing about another of Dr Fadel's patients.

Ms Y, who had been a victim of sexual abuse, had become depressed after being sacked from her job at WH Smith a year earlier.

After becoming addicted to a drug to treat insomnia in 1996 she began to see Dr Fadel twice a week.

"He would ask her to lie down and would play a calming tape while her touched her head and shoulders."

At the same time Dr Fadel was paying Ms Y £5 a time to clean his house for him.

By 1998 his conduct came even more strange, Ms Barnfather told the hearing. When Ms Y went to see him he would ask her if she wanted to be a doctor or a patient and tell her about the problems he was having in his marriage. He also began to hug and kiss her when she left.

Ms Barnfather said: "On one occasion he teased her about the sexual abuse and said he had spoken to her abuser who could still recall bouncing her on his knee."

Dr Fadel, who graduated in Cairo in 1972, was suspended from practising medicine in March 2000. He is believed to have returned to Egypt.

The hearing continues