‘Irresistible’ sex pest social worker suspended for 2 years

A senior social worker harassed four female colleagues while boasting he was irresistible to women, a tribunal heard.

Thomas Starkey, 57, was suspended for two years after being found guilty of 15 charges of misconduct over 11 years.

Social worker Stephanie Rowles, 40, told the General Social Care Council how the married father of two continually asked her out and made advances towards her.

She said that once, during a work trip to Ireland, he sexually propositioned her by asking: ‘Your hotel room or mine?’

She said Starkey’s harassment ended only when she got a new haircut that he said ‘made her look like a lesbian’.

Senior manager Linda Gresty also accused Starkey of pestering her for dates and said it was ’embarrassing’ how he would brag about his new swimming pool.

When she confronted Starkey from Vowchurch, Herefordshire, about his behaviour, he told her he was ‘just a scally from Liverpool’.

Starkey also upset the receptionist where he worked as director of social work at Clifford House, a care home for children in Luston, Herefordshire.

Debbie Price said he told her women found him ‘irresistible because of his money, status and sexual prowess’.

The GSCC ruled on Friday that Starkey had displayed a pattern of ‘persistent inappropriate conduct’.