A social worker who allegedly formed a relationship with a client in his care and then threatened to kill himself after it ended will face a disciplinary hearing this month.
Brian Gorman will appear before the Scottish Social Services Council accused of a string of charges – including developing “inappropriate” relationships with two women, hitting one of them and forcing his way into her two-year-old’s bedroom before lying down on the bed with the child.
The social worker was working for Aberdeen City Council in the integrated drugs service at the time the offences are alleged to have happened.
The charges against Mr Gorman date from June 2011 to September last year.
But last night, the 58-year-old, who has been a social worker since 1989, denied the allegations and said some were “malicious” fabrications.
It is alleged Mr Gorman got involved with the first woman, AA, while she was receiving support from the drugs service and continued to see her after her final meeting with the team in April 2012 – by going out for coffee, taking a trip to Dunnottar Castle at Stonehaven, attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with her, inviting her to his house and texting her.
It is alleged that after the relationship ended, Mr Gorman sent AA a picture of himself after he had self-harmed and later told her he was going to kill himself by drinking methadone.
Mr Gorman is accused off shouting abuse at AA at her home in July last year and as he followed her to a bus stop, and allegedly told her “you betrayed my love”.
It is also alleged that in September last year, while on bail with a special condition not to contact AA, Mr Gorman sent her a birthday card and went to her home where he declared his love for her.
Mr Gorman is also accused of showing another woman, BB, graphic photographs of a woman – believed to be AA – displaying self-harm wounds and taking heroin.
He is further accused of forcing his way into BB’s home on August 17 last year, hitting her when she tried to prevent him from getting into her children’s bedroom, and then lying on the bed with her two-year-old child.
The SSSC alleges Mr Gorman’s behaviour constitutes forming an “inappropriate personal relationship with a service user, abuse and-or harm a service user and failing to communicate in an appropriate way”.
The body will consider the case against Mr Gorman in Dundee later this month.
Social worker Brian Gorman vowed to fight the allegations at the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) hearing, but admitted he did not think he would win.
The 58-year-old claimed several of the charges were “malicious” fabrications, and insisted that while he was working for Aberdeen’s integrated drugs service his relationship with AA had been purely professional.
He also described the accusation that he had climbed on to a bed with a two-year-old child as a “complete work of fiction”.
Mr Gorman, who lost his job and his home as a result of the allegations, said: “The majority of it is nonsense. I was not having a relationship with a client, she was a former client and had been a former client for a significant period of time.
“It started out as a friendship, she was not a client, we went to take photos and went for walks – we didn’t do anything in private.
“Six months later we realised we were fond of each other and wanted to be together and that apparently was against the rules.”
Mr Gorman, who has been working with vulnerable people since he was 17, claimed social work appeared to be the only profession where people could not form relationships with someone they had once helped.
And although he said he would be fighting to keep his registration when the case calls later this month, he said: “I don’t expect to win – they will take away my registration. They want to make an example of me.
“Some of the charges I won’t be found guilty of, but there are some I will. They have thrown so much at me, they’ll get me whatever.”