A GP who attended therapy for sex and love addiction has been handed a seven-month suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to sexual activity with a vulnerable patient.

Doctor Angus Brooke kissed a female patient and got her to masturbate him in the Knebworth and Marymead Medical Practice in Stevenage, where he worked before he was suspended in 2017 for an unrelated matter.

Brooke, 50, now of Park Lane, Stockport, appeared at St Albans Crown Court on Friday for sentencing, having pleaded guilty to causing or inciting a sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder by a care worker.

Judge Sandeep Kainth told him: “Your job was to protect and assist those who are in difficulties, not to take advantage.”

Prosecutor Simon Wilshere said that on June 5, 2017, the victim - diagnosed with emotional unstable personality disorder - was the last patient of the day and Brooke told the receptionist to leave, leaving him alone with her.

At the end of the consultation, Brooke tried to kiss her as she walked to the door and he took out his penis, the court heard, and in the hallway he set the burglar alarm, took his penis out again, began to masturbate and put her hand on his penis, Mr Wilshere said.

After she pushed him away, he said: 'Are we ok?' She said: 'Yeah, I’m fine' and he drove her home, the court heard.

The patient told the police she had liked Brooke because he understood her. They had both previously attended therapy for sex and love addiction.

“I used to be infatuated with him. He was nice and listened to me,” she said.

Mr Wilshire said Brooke knew the woman suffered from anxiety and depression and had a poor self image. “She was vulnerable and it was known to doctors at her surgery,” he said.

On November 20, 2018, the woman - who is in her early 30s - told another doctor and the police were contacted. Brooke had been suspended since June 2017 for an unrelated matter that was not continued.

Brooke was questioned by police and said any sexual activity was consensual.

In a Victim Personal Statement the woman said she felt she had been “betrayed, let down and violated.” Addressing Brooke, she said “you are a manipulative and callous man - you are a predator.”

Mr Wilshire said that although Brooke had no previous convictions, he had failed to respond to a previous warning.

He had been referred to the General Medical Council and suspended in 2014 for an alleged “boundary transgression.”

The prosecutor went on: “The police also identified a patient that had a consensual sexual encounter in his surgery in 2003. In July 2019, he admitted he had performed oral sex on the patient in his consultation room.”

Ruth Becker, defending, said the other case did not involve a vulnerable patient, but he had overstepped professional boundaries on that occasion.

She said Brooke, who had been diagnosed with a brain injury, had been medically retired and would never work as a GP again.

Judge Kainth told him: “Mr Brooke, this offence is a massive and considerable breach of trust. You have gone completely against the Hippocratic Oath.

“Your job was to protect and to assist those who are in difficulties, not to take advantage for your own sexual gratification.”

He passed a seven-month sentence suspended for 12 months. Brooke must carry out 25 rehabilitation days and abide by an electronically-monitored curfew for six months between 8pm and 6am. He must also pay £2,500 to the victim.