Social worker banned for offering client ‘weekend of ecstasy’

An agency social worker who offered to take a service user on “a weekend of ecstasy” to Paris has been suspended from the social care register for a year.

The service user had been referred to a mental health team run by the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust in 2007 because her family doctor thought she might have depression.

Her case was allocated to David Cahill, a locum social worker who was viewed by his managers as “competent and skilled”, a conduct committee was told.

But on a night in September 2007, Cahill invited the woman to a pub and said he would take her on a weekend of ecstasy to Paris or skiing in Switzerland.

He made a series of sexually explicit remarks, slapped her bottom and said “the next one could be a naked spanking”, or words to that effect, the hearing was told.

Cahill, who attended the hearing at the General Social Care Council, acknowledged he was at fault.

The committee found several mitigating factors in the case, including the fact that Cahill had worked in social care for 30 years and the misconduct was confined to one evening.

“The misconduct, albeit serious, was isolated and occurred three years ago, [and] is unlikely to be repeated,” the committee said.

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