Social worker struck off for abusing female colleagues

Athanase Joseph Katsonis would repeatedly kiss and cuddle his colleagues despite being asked to stop, the General Social Care Council (GSCC) heard.

June 27, 2012 in Community Care

A social worker who abused his female colleagues and failed to disclose a police caution he received for punching another woman in the face has been struck off the register in England.

Athanase Joseph Katsonis was called in front of the General Social Care Council’s (GSCC) conduct committee due to a catalogue of incidents, most of which took place while he was employed by the London Borough of Havering between 2007 and 2011.

His roles at the council included a two-year stint as a care manager with the hospital discharge team at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, Essex.

During his time with the team, Katsonis repeatedly touched six of his female colleagues in an inappropriate manner, including massaging their necks, kissing or cuddling them, despite their protests. This behaviour continued even after he was told by management to stop.

He also tried to shake one of the women out of her chair and shouted at two of the others, including his line manager, the conduct committee heard.

During the hearing, it also emerged that Katsonis had failed to disclose to the GSCC a police caution for common assault, which he had received in 2002 after punching a woman in the face, causing bruising and swelling.

Other allegations against the social worker included that he became embroiled in service users’ financial matters while working for the Havering Direct Team, which the conduct committee found proved.

In one case, he put pressure on a service user’s daughter to take responsibility for her father’s finances even though arrangements had been made for his sons to do so.

“The proven misconduct is fundamentally incompatible with the registrant continuing to be a registered social worker because it involved repeated dishonesty, repeated incidents of inappropriate behaviour (including a failure to respect colleagues), poor and insensitive practice and a lack of insight,” the conduct committee concluded.

Read the full notice of decision

Related articles

New minimum standards introduced for social workers