Social worker who harassed service users claimed he was lonely

A social worker who allegedly harassed two service users told a colleague he was lonely and “looking for a good woman,” a General Social Care Council conduct committee has heard.

Egbert Elijah Hall, who is charged with misconduct, was a locum social worker at Brent Council when he contacted the women, asking them for dates, between September 2005 and July 2006.

Harassing text messages

He sent sex-related text messages to one of the women, known as X, and phoned saying he loved her, the committee heard.

Hall also harassed another woman Y, hanging around her house day and night and sitting in his red BMW outside her daughter’s school. He was not her allocated worker and had no reason to be contacting her.

In May 2006 he accepted a harassment warning from the police.

Yvonne Prince, at the time a manager in a referrals and assessment team, told the hearing Hall had met Y when she came to the offices to collect money for her child, a task that should have taken minutes. Instead Hall had a conversation with the woman for an hour and when asked to explain his actions said he had “got chatting” to her.

Casanova character

Prince said: “He said he had noticed she had a Jamaican accent and they had found out they knew quite a few people in Jamaica.”

Another witness, PC Mark Hay said X had told him she had the impression he was “a bit of of a Casanova character”. Hall’s employment was terminated when the harassment warning was revealed by the police to social services.

Hall did not attend the two-day hearing or send a legal representative. The committee has now retired to consider whether Hall is guilty of misconduct.

Related articles

Expert guide to the conduct system

Community Care special report on the conduct system

More information

Information on Egbert Hall case

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More from Community Care

Comments are closed.