Social worker had sex with vulnerable woman

A SOCIAL worker has been told he cannot practise for two years after he “exploited” an “extremely vulnerable” woman and had a sexual relationship with her.

Daniel Bhim-Rao was supposed to look after the interests and rights of the woman, known only as Miss X, and to protect her from abuse, when City of York Council assigned him to be her social worker.

Instead, he formed an “inappropriate relationship” that he turned into a sexual one after he changed jobs to work for East Riding of Yorkshire Council, a conduct hearing of the General Social Care Council (GSCC) heard.

Within weeks of him ending the relationship, the woman’s health deteriorated and she was admitted to hospital. He then pestered her with text messages despite her telling him to leave her alone.

John Hepworth, on behalf of the professional body, told the conduct hearing the case was about “an exploitation of power”.

He said: “There was clearly an imbalance of power between the registrant (Mr Bhim-Rao) and Miss X. That imbalance was exploited and led to the registrant’s conduct falling well below that which could be expected of a social worker.”

Miss X was “extremely vulnerable”, as Mr Bhim-Rao knew, the hearing heard.

Mr Hepworth called for Mr Bhim-Rao’s social worker registration to be revoked. Mr Bhim-Rao had shown no remorse for his actions in a submission to the council’s investigating officer sent in October 2011, he said.

Mr Bhim-Rao was not present or represented at the three-day hearing in London, which heard evidence by TV link from Miss X and other witnesses. His current address is unknown.

He had told the GSCC in July 2011 he would be abroad visiting relatives for at least five months from August 2011 and in October he accepted the hearing might be in his absence.

The committee, which included lay and social work members, decided to suspend him for two years, in addition to an interim suspension that began on July 20, 2011.

Committee chair Susan Riddle said the misconduct was serious, but there had been no complaint against Mr Bhim-Rao since the misconduct, which ended in March 2004, and therefore revocation was not needed to protect the public.

Mr Bhim-Rao’s misconduct began in April 2002. After he left York, in July 2002, the relationship became sexual, before he ended it in November 2002. In December 2002, Miss X was admitted to hospital and he sent her a text message.

In January 2003, she told him from hospital not to contact her again, but he sent seven more messages up to March 2004.

Mr Bhim-Rao worked for East Riding of Yorkshire Council until June 2005, when he moved to work for Hull Social Services. He resigned from that post last summer. He has 28 days to lodge an appeal.

The GSCC will be abolished this summer and he will have to apply to its successor after February 9, 2014, if he wishes to work as a social worker in England again.

Pete Dwyer, City of York Council’s director of adults, children and education, confirmed Bhim-Rao worked for the authority between 2001 and 2002, but said the allegations did not come to light then. He said the council took very seriously any complaints about current or past employees.