Psychiatrist faces being struck off for pursuit of sex worker who was former patient

By Jacob Phillips, Local Democracy Service

A Harley Street psychiatrist paid a porn star and former patient for sex, a medical hearing heard.

Dr Antonio Metastasio, who also tutors at the University of Cambridge as well as working for the NHS in Camden and Islington, asked the sex worker to not say anything about their liaisons just in case he was “Me Too’d.”

The psychiatrist is set to be struck off the UK medical register unless he appeals against the Medical Practitioner Tribunal Service’s decision.

Dr Metastasio first met the porn model, referred to as patient A, in late November 2017 after she had a bipolar depressive episode.

She was at risk of suicide and was addicted to alcohol. Dr Metastasio saw her on four occasions before she discharged herself from hospital. The woman was working as an escort and porn model at the time.

Six months later, Dr Metastasio messaged the sex worker on Twitter, according to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.

He tried to message her on Twitter three times in 2018 before booking the sex worker to meet him on Valentine’s Day 2019.

She agreed and met him that evening for an hour at a London hotel where he gave her alcohol, the pair had a shower together before she performed oral sex on him.

The doctor paid patient A £200 and allegedly asked her to not tell anyone or he may get into trouble. He then tried to meet up with her again in August 2020.

Two days later, Patient A complained to Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.

The tribunal also heard that Dr Metastasio sent the woman a WhatsApp message on August 26, 2020, asking to meet up.

The tribunal ruled the doctor knew who patient A was and that she had been vulnerable due to alcohol addiction and that she had self-harmed.

Giving evidence to the tribunal Patient A said: “When we got to the hotel room, Dr [Metastasio] poured some wine and he talked about bipolar and how he could help me with it.

“Dr [Metastasio] started and led the conversation. [He] acknowledged treating me as a patient. Dr [Metastasio] was talking about things relating to psychiatry…”

She added: “We had sex and afterwards. Dr [Metastasio] said that he had recognised me when we first met. [He] said, ‘You know about the ‘Me Too’ movement, well you can’t tell anyone about this, or I might get in trouble’.”

The tribunal heard the doctor was already using sex workers before November 2017 and a note from the crisis team at the hospital had said “[Patient A] continues to work in the sex industry as a porn model.”

Dr Metastasio denied seeing this note and said he did not know patient A was the sex worker.

In his witness statement, Dr Metastasio said: “I accept that Patient A was vulnerable due to her complex history.

“Had I known or suspected at any time that [she] had been a patient of mine, regardless of whether I considered her to be vulnerable, I would never have contacted her online and I would never have met with her or engaged in any sexual activity with her.

“I entirely accept that to have done so would have been highly inappropriate, indeed reprehensible and would be seen as such by a member of the public.

“I pride myself on being a good psychiatrist with high standards and the suggestion that I might be considered in any way a risk to patients I have found extremely distressing.”

But the tribunal ruled that Dr Metastasio must have known the sex worker was patient A. The Tribunal concluded that he would have looked at the photos on her Twitter feed before making the decision to follow her on Twitter.

This would have been four or five months after he had treated her as an in-patient.

The doctor is set to be removed from the UK medical register by January 13, 2023, unless he appeals against the decision.

Dr Metastasio is also the lead psychiatrist at the Pasithea Ketamine Clinic and works as an associate at a Harley Street clinic.

Pictured top: Harley Street (Picture: Wikimedia Commons / Outreachr.com)