Eamonn McCann has been struck off by General Dental Council (GDC) after he 'repeatedly' sexually assaulted two dental nurses in front of patients.
A disciplinary panel heard he repeatedly targeted a nurse and sexually assaulted her in 1990s, whilst a second dental nurse said she was touched inappropriately by McCann in 2015.
The committee was told how McCann deliberately prolonged patients' treatment so he could assault the first victim – a dental nurse known only as Witness A – in the surgery and make comments about her figure.
She told the committee she would try to 'close her legs', 'clam up' and 'move away' from McCann, based in Northern Ireland, as a result of his behaviour, and even resorted to wearing her father’s cardigan to try and hide her body.
Witness A told the committee, “There was one incident when [McCann] came into the practice happily at Christmas time with bonuses and gave me a long kiss. It was in the cloakroom when I was about to leave for Christmas, and it was just me there.
“He kissed me on the cheek and said, ‘I've always wanted to give you a Christmas kiss.’
The woman also told the committee how McCann would also go under her underwear, explaining, “He would be doing it whilst casually speaking to patients”.
It was also revealed that the nurse ‘nearly vomited' after McCann 'came running towards her and pressed himself on her back'.
She continued, “At the end of one of those days I was working with [McCann], he tried to have sex with me.”
She recounted the events in detail telling the committee, “He'd been quite friendly and had been touching me on the legs throughout the day. He said that my skin was soft.
“He only ever touched my legs as that's what patients could not see.
“It was at the end of the day that I was cleaning in the surgery and he just launched at me.
“I don't think he kissed me. He would always take off his tunic in the surgery rather than in the cloak room and he would always be topless underneath it.
“I think his trousers were on but his zip was undone. It lasted for seconds. He must have pulled down my underwear.”
The committee then heard how Witness A was so ‘distressed’ that she ‘immediately ran home’.
McCann told the panel he would never have done this, and claimed he could not remember Witness A.
A second victim – Witness B – also shared her experience of sexual assault by McCann. She told the GDC, “I was typing [and] the next thing I knew, he had me pinned against the workbench that the computer was on. I felt like his penis was erect and he was pushing up against me.
“I just wanted to get the email written and get out of there. I began to get flustered and he started to do an in an in-and-out motion, three or four times.”
Witness B also told the committee on another occasion, McCann touched her leg before 'squeezing' up and down, then eventually in her crotch area as they were filling in a patient's cavity.
Other incidents include McCann touching her crotch during an x-ray in the surgery room – which McCann denied, saying he might have brushed past her – and an occasion where he also 'squeezed' her buttock under her trousers, which left her feeling very 'cross' and 'uncomfortable'.
A former patient – known as Witness C – also came forward to report McCann. She told the committee that “during an appointment in either 2009 or 2010, he placed his hand on the thigh of the dental nurse for a few minutes.”
The patient said the nurse appeared “visibly upset afterwards”, which then made the patient “upset and uncomfortable” – and they subsequently left the practice.
McCann had initially been suspended for a year, however he has now been struck off the register, with the committee concluding, “You employed a strikingly similar modus operandi in relation to the commission of acts of sexual touching against your female dental nurses when there were 'patients in the chair' within the dental surgery.
“The evidence in relation to your conduct viewed overall, tends to suggest that you regularly sought to sexually touch dental nurses working for you, including in the course of patient appointments.”