Social worker is struck off for relationship with client

A SENIOR social worker who fathered two children with one of his vulnerable clients has been struck off. A two-day General Social Care Council hearing heard that Richard Clasby (46) physically and sexually abused the woman during a four-year affair.

He admitted one allegation – that he had told her he would lose his job if she exposed their relationship – but was also accused of 11 offences related to drugs, aggressive behaviour, verbal abuse, threats to suffocate their child and demands for sex.

The hearing was told the pair entered into an affair and the woman, who cannot be named, claimed during their four years together he bullied her into silence and threatened to suffocate their children and commit suicide if their relationship was made public.

The committee found all the allegations had been proven.

In a joint statement, chief executive, of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust Karen Bell and Cambridgeshire County Council’s executive director of community and adult services Rod Craig said: “This kind of behaviour will never be tolerated.

“We will do everything we can to ensure that such an incident does not happen again in Cambridgeshire.”