A psychotherapist told a male patient who was a virgin to sleep with a prostitute as a 'cure'.

Stuart Lieberman, 52, told the man, who believed he could be homosexual, that he should have intercourse with male and female prostitutes "to find out if he was gay or straight," it was alleged.

Joanna Glynn, representing the General Medical Council, told its professional conduct committee that the 34-year-old patient, known as Mr A, saw Dr Lieberman as a 'god-like figure' and did his best to perform the 'task' he had been set.

However, after disastrous encounters with two female prostitutes from Brighton and a gay friend, Mr A was worried the doctor would tell him off for failing when he came for his next session.

Mr A made an unsuccessful attempt to kill himself, the hearing was told. Miss Glynn said: "Even for a normal person, such a task would have been daunting, but for someone with such long-standing problems as Mr A, it was devastating."

She claimed that the unusual advice was given to Mr A by the doctor in front of his elderly parents at the Prudence Skinner Family Therapy Clinic in Worthing in July 1992.

Problems

Mr A did not complain about the doctor's conduct until 1997, however, when he was told the advice had been "irresponsible and inappropriate." Miss Glynn told the committee that jobless Mr A had a "kaleidoscope of mental problems," including worries about his sexuality and obsessive compulsive disorder for many years.

He had been an in-patient in hospital before being discharged into the care of the clinic, which offered therapy for 'families in distress'. The doctor, of Pines House, Pines Road, Fleet, Aldershot, Hampshire, advised Mr A at their sixth therapy session "to lose his virginity if possible before the next session in a month."

The council's case was that Dr Lieberman gave Mr A "clear and unequivocal advice that he should sleep with male and female prostitutes because there would be no other way to lose his virginity before the next session."

Mr A did his best to comply, despite his parents' objections, by going to Brighton and contacting two female prostitutes after picking up cards in telephone boxes.

Miss Glynn said: "He tried to have sex with them but he couldn't do it. He found this embarrassing and totally humiliating. Then he contacted a gay friend but he would not go all the way and found this was also humiliating."

His confidence then hit rock bottom because he thought the doctor would tell him to go away and he would lose his last chance of solving his problems.

He took an overdose of tablets in August 1992 and was admitted to hospital, where he underwent lengthy treatment.

He had made other failed suicide attempts since then, said Miss Glynn.

Mr A had one final counselling session with Dr Lieberman, who accused him of using the suicide bid as an excuse for not losing his

virginity.

Mr A, now 41, told the hearing: "My parents were against the idea but who was I to believe, an expert with medical knowledge or my parents without medical knowledge?"

Dr Lieberman, who qualified in Nova Scotia, denies failing to keep adequate records of his therapy sessions with Mr A, failing to keep himself adequately acquainted with his medical records and history and advising him to lose his virginity by sleeping with male and/or female prostitutes by the next session after a consultation on July 1, 1992.

The hearing continues.

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