An Ayrshire care assistant has been struck off after she embarked on a ‘prolonged’ sexual relationship with a service user – then threatened to have him ‘done’ for rape when their relationship was investigated.
Leigh-anne McCartney attempted to have sex with the man in a car, before the pair had sexual relations on “multiple dates” in a basement.
The pair also had sex in a Premier Inn, according to the industry regulator, the Scottish Social Services Council, (SSSC).
According to the SSSC the intimacy took place between June 2022 until, on or around 19 April 2023. McCartney’s town of employment was revealed as Saltcoats, but at the time of the offences she was employed by a Kilwinning-based care firm, whose name was redacted in the final report.
When the relationship was placed under investigation, McCartney also sought to cover her tracks by deleting data from the service user’s mobile phone.
The SSSC said that, by virtue of deleting data from the service user’s phone, McCartney had also acted ‘dishonestly.’
And on or around 22 November 2023, McCartney told the service user, known only as ‘AA,’ that if he ‘said anything’, in reference to their relationship, she would ‘get him done with rape’, or words to that effect.
McCartney denied the allegations.
Several other allegations were dropped, including one that the pair had sex in a tent, after McCartney left her employment.
She was, however, adjudged to have sent a text message to the man, on or around March 19 2024 which read: “You talk so much s***e it’s unreal. Never once have I said I don’t care or love u. I am sick of the drama. I’m in bits too. I have done nothing wrong at all. U believe what u like. I don’t want to talk because it’s drama I can be doing without. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow and if I get any sleep.
“U have totally broke me. I cannot cope…. I don’t need ur apology AA. Sorry means nothing now. Ur always sorry. Say and do what u want. Am officially broken. Bye.”
In their notice of decision, the SSSC said McCartney’s conduct amounted to “serious professional misconduct.”
An extract from their report said: “You (McCartney) engaged in a prolonged sexual affair with a vulnerable service user. You were in a position of trust in respect of AA and you betrayed that trust.
“Your conduct constituted an egregious breach of the professional boundaries which ought to exist between social services workers and service users. The conduct found proved amounts to sexual misconduct, dishonesty and abuse of a position of trust.”
The regulator also claimed that the relationship had a “profoundly harmful effect” on the service user involved who had intimated his concerns to a witness after the ‘rape threat’ and had been “clearly affected by it.”
The SSSC fitness to practise report continues: “The Panel accepted AA’s evidence that you had threatened to report him for rape as credible.
“At no point during these proceedings have you (McCartney) indicated any concern for AA or his wellbeing. Your engagement with the SSSC’s process has amounted to little more than bare denials of the allegations.
“In that context, the Panel had no basis to conclude that any risk posed by you had been ameliorated. It noted that your involvement with AA had been prolonged and could not reasonably characterised as an isolated incident.
“On that basis, the Panel concluded that there remained a significant risk of repetition and that, accordingly, your fitness to practise remains currently impaired.”
In issuing a removal order the SSSC added: “The Panel considered that a Removal Order is the most appropriate sanction. It is both necessary and justified in the public interest and to maintain the continuing trust and confidence in the social service profession and the SSSC as the regulator of the profession.
“In particular, the Panel noted that your (McCartney’s) conduct was at the extreme end of seriousness.
“A properly informed, reasonable member of the public, would, in the Panel’s view, be shocked and offended to find out that you (McCartney) remained registered with the SSSC following such conduct being proved.”