A former inmate from Armley Jail has described how he was intimately fondled by a prison doctor he had visited about a groin strain.

GP John Anthony Sykes, 48, is appearing in front of the General Medical Council's Professional Conduct Committee in Manchester. The hearing is to inquire into whether Dr Sykes, of Scholes Lane, Scholes in Cleckheaton, carried out the intimate examinations - while he was a prison doctor at the Leeds jail - without clinical justification. It is also alleged that his actions were indecent, unprofessional and an abuse of his professional position.

The Committee heard how the former prisoner - known as Mr B - visited Dr Sykes in his prison consulting room on July 14, 1997.

He told the hearing how he went in to complain of a groin strain but was told to take down his trousers and was then examined intimately.

When asked by GMC legal representative Robert Seabrook QC how he felt during the examination, the former prisoner replied: "It wasn't right. I don't know what words to say - it was just a feeling. He was enjoying it too much." He said he knew Dr Sykes was getting pleasure from it "just by looking at him".

Mr B said Dr Sykes then fondled him and told him he might need circumcising. The former inmate said Dr Sykes told him to arouse himself to decide whether he needed to be circumcised.

"He kept coming to my cell on the wing and locking the door," said Mr B. "He kept telling me to come and see him in his office."

He said Dr Sykes asked to see him again on July 22. About six weeks later he made a complaint against Dr Sykes.

When asked by one GMC member why it took him so long to report Dr Sykes, he said: "I didn't want to believe that I had been touched in that way by another man. I had to decide whether I wanted this publicly being known to my family, my friends, my girlfriend."

Christina Lambert, representing Dr Sykes, said to Mr B that if he had undergone genital examinations before with other doctors, he would have known that Dr Sykes' examination was "wholly improper". Mr B replied: "I'm not thick. I'm not dumb, but I'm not the brightest of people. When a doctor's doing things like that it's difficult to make up your mind in your head.

"You trust a doctor, or are supposed to be able to trust a doctor."

Miss Lambert told the Committee that Dr Sykes admitted touching Mr B, checking for lumps, but denied fondling him and asking him to arouse himself.

The hearing continues.