A prison nurse described how she entered an apparently empty and locked doctor's consultation room to discover the doctor and prisoner "very close together in a corner"

behind the door.

Dr John Anthony Sykes, of Scholes Lane, Scholes, Cleckheaton, is appearing in front of a Professional Conduct Committee in Manchester which is investigating whether he carried out intimate examinations without clinical justification while a doctor at Armley Prison, Leeds.

It is alleged his actions were indecent and an abuse of his professional position.

Jacki Rushworth, a former staff nurse at Armley, told the hearing she wanted medical records she thought might be in Dr Sykes's room and knocked on the door and turned the handle.

"The door was locked so I went to look through the spy hole and there was no-one there," she said.

"I couldn't see anybody through the spy hole. I went to the door and opened it with my key. Dr Sykes was behind the door with a patient."

She said the patient and Dr Sykes were clothed and nothing untoward seemed to be going on but she said she was "startled" because the pair were "very close together in a corner".

Christina Lambert, representing the 48-year-old doctor, suggested to Miss Rushworth that the door had a habit of sticking and she had mistaken that for it being locked.

Miss Rushworth replied: "I know the door was locked because I unlocked it with my key."

Nurse Edna Scott, of Birstall, who also worked at Armley at the time of the allegations, told the hearing she had spoken to Dr Sykes about a particular prisoner not wanting to attend call-ups, but he persisted in calling him up.

She also saw Dr Sykes with a prisoner through the spy hole in his consultation room. She said the inmate was laid on the examination couch and Dr Sykes was leant against it with his back to the spy hole.

She said he looked "quite guarded - not relaxed" and when he left the room minutes later, was "a bit flushed - a bit pink".

A statement was also read from staff nurse Joanne Gatenby, who said that in September, 1997 she had seen a prisoner in Dr Sykes's consultation room during 'patrol state' - a time when the prison has fewer staff and prisoners are locked in their cells.

The hearing continues.