A Sydney psychologist has been banned from practicing for a decade after he encouraged a female patient to have sex with a dog.
Gareth Michael Dawes, who had practices at Parramatta and Penrith, has been found by the NSW Health Cares Complaint Commission to have "manipulated" his client, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to "fulfil his own sexual fantasies".
The young woman, a university student, who suffered from psychological issues arising from sexual and physical abuse and neglect, was a client of Dawes between January 2011 and April 2012.
During this time Dawes and the patient sent each other about 3000 emails – many of which had images, videos and website links to pornography within them.
The pair began a sexual relationship in September 2011 which took place in his offices and in secluded public places. In December 2011, the HCCC said Dawes began encouraging the woman to engage in bestiality by having sex with dogs by sending her emails and images about the topic.
Three months later Dawes was found to have "facilitated, participated and watched" his client have sex with a dog.
In an explicit email tendered to the HCCC, Dawes wrote to his client saying: "You'll be safe with me ... You can dictate what happens as I will not permit you being forced into anything you do not want to do..."
Emails written by Dawes recounting what had occurred during the incident were also tendered to the commission.
The tribunal was also told Dawes made similar arrangements on another occasion only for it to be stopped when the woman "freaked out" as the dog, a Staffordshire terrier named Vladimir, began scratching at her arms and legs.
The HCCC was made aware of the actions of Dawes when the woman detailed her relationship with him with her next treating psychologist. She said her relationship with Dawes had ended when his wife became aware of what was occurring.
The woman told the HCCC she did not want him to be punished but rather to be "reprimanded and rehabilitated".
"She considers him to be a 'brilliant professional in terms of his experience and insights into personality disorders and abnormal psychology", the HCCC's judgment read. "She did however wish him to prevent the respondent from victimising any other clients".
The HCCC found that Dawes was suffering from a mental impairment or disorder – "namely a complex paraphilia characterised by periods of fetishism, zoophilia and an obsessive compulsive pre-occupation with pornographic material that detrimentally affects the practitioner's capacity to practice the profession".
The commission said it had no evidence that Dawes had undertaken necessary treatment to overcome this disorder.
"The vulnerability of [the woman] would have been patently obvious, not only to a qualified psychologist - but to any right minded person," the HCCC said in its judgment. "She had a history of being the victim of various forms of abuse, or being a drug user and of having an eating disorder."
The tribunal said after gaining the young woman's trust, Dawes then "set about to manipulate her" into sexual acts with him that she initially had indicated she had no interest in.
The HCCC said it would have cancelled Dawes registration if the psychologist had not already done so himself. It ordered that he be disqualified from re-registering for a period of 10 years and that he also be prohibited from providing community health, counselling or mental health services.
