Telford nurse's disciplinary hearing adjourned

A nurse who wrote to a patient saying "bad girls are better" and asked for her confessions is facing an anxious wait after his disciplinary hearing was adjourned.

Lee Moray Vint, 46, also sent the woman several texts on her mobile phone, called her "hon" in an official letter and gave her a birthday card and gifts.

Vint, who was working as a substance misuse worker for Telford and Wrekin Council at the time of the incidents, also stored a file on his work computer with a sexually explicit title.

The nurse has been appearing before the conduct and competence committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council in central London.

He has admitted failing to maintain professional boundaries to the female patient known as service user A and storing the rude file.

Vint, of Telford, also confessed to writing a sexually explicit note to a former carer.

The panel found Vint had also failed to maintain professional boundaries with a second patient known as service user B. Two charges of him using inappropriate language with colleagues were withdrawn and two charges alleging he had been accessing internet sites of an adult or sexual nature were found not proved.

The panel ran out of time to decide whether he is guilty of misconduct and if his fitness to practise is impaired. It yesterday adjourned the hearing and will reconvene this year.

If his fitness to practise is found to be impaired he could be kicked out of the profession, suspended or given conditions of practice.