A PSYCHIATRIST has been accused of lying about a patient by falsely claiming he recorded telephone conversations with clients and “felt like hitting people at work”.
Dr Jane McLennan, an expert in old age psychiatry from Edinburgh, is alleged to have knowingly made a string of false claims about the patient, known only as Mr A, in a damning psychiatric report.
Dr McLennan, a consultant psychiatrist at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Edinburgh, has lectured in psychiatry at the universities of Dundee and Stirling and also been a member of the Scottish Government's national panel of specialists.
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The psychiatric report was prepared by Dr McLennan following a consultation with Mr A in July 2014. At the time, Mr A was in dispute with his former employer, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).
It is alleged that Dr McLennan went on to claim that the report she had written about Mr A was accurate during the employment tribunal in January 2015, despite knowing that she had attributed comments and quotes to Mr A which she "knew to be false".
Dr McLennan, 56, was contracted by Insight Psychiatric Services in Edinburgh at the time as an expert witness for court cases.
In the psychiatric report, Dr McLennan said that Mr A told her he was "'f***ed off' at the language that CICA applicants used when they were on the phone with him" and claimed he had referred to clients as "these f***ing girning b******s".
The report went on to claim that Mr A, who was suffering from depression, anxiety, chronic headaches and irritable bowel syndrome, had "kept recordings of conversations with [clients] to demonstrate 'the f***ing lies the f***ing b******s telt'".
Dr McLennan reported that Mr A told her he had been given access to his employee file by accident and that the information contained in it "demonstrated that his managers had been sending lists of accusations against him to prospective employers".
She said he told her his managers had lied about him "to ensure he was not successful in gaining employment elsewhere".
Dr McLennan said Mr A "felt 'paranoid' and as though everyone was against him", and claimed he had told her "he was always angry, felt like hitting people at work and it was very difficult to restrain himself".
Dr McLennan said the patient's conversation was difficult to follow "partly because of the number of expletives he peppered it with" and that he "became more agitated and verbally aggressive as the consultation continued".
The case is being considered by the Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service (MPTS) in Manchester. It is alleged that Dr McLennan's fitness to practise is impaired by dishonesty.
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It is alleged that the comments detailed in Dr McLennan's report "were not made by Mr A during the examination" and that the psychiatrist "knew [they] were not made".
At the employment tribunal on January 6 2015, Dr McLennan is said to have falsely "maintained the report was accurate".
The tribunal is expected to continue until July 6.
Dr McLennan has given evidence in a number of trials. In 2014, she testified in support of Edinburgh grocer, Muhammad Asghar, who was sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy after signing a letter "prophet" Muhammad.
She said the grandfather suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and delusions of being a very holy man which may have led him to describe himself in "exaggerated terms".
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