A former doctor at Armley jail stripped prisoners and carried out sex acts on them, a General Medical Council hearing was told.

And GP John Anthony Sykes allegedly ignored bosses' warnings not to get too close to inmates by taking a released prisoner shopping and splashing out £1,500 on presents for him.

Dr Sykes, of Cleckheaton, appeared in front of a Professional Conduct Committee in Manchester yesterday to investigate whether he carried out the intimate examinations - while he was a prison doctor at Armley Jail in Leeds - without clinical justification. It is also alleged that his actions were indecent, unprofessional and an abuse of his professional position.

Dressed in a blue shirt, tie and suit, bespectacled Dr Sykes stood while the 14 accusations were read to him and during the hearing he took notes.

Representing the GMC, Robert Seabrook QC said Dr Sykes, of Scholes Lane in Scholes, was employed at Armley from January 1997 to January 2002 and given basic information about security and how to conduct himself in a prison.

He said Brendan Carroll - Senior Medical Officer and Dr Sykes' line manager - had numerous conversations with the GP about rules he should work to, such as not carrying out intimate examinations and referring all routine intimate examinations to him.

He was also told to change his consulting style to avoid inadvertent body contact with prisoners.

But the hearing was told that one prisoner complained after he allegedly rubbed his chest and arm and another said Dr Sykes had performed a sex act on him during a consultation.

Mr Seabrook said when this prisoner refused to perform a sex act on Dr Sykes, the GP threatened to have him moved and offered to prescribe him more drugs.

A third prisoner claimed Dr Sykes had performed an intimate examination on him in what he suggested was a sexual manner.

A staff nurse and a health care officer also claimed to have seen Dr Sykes kneeling in front of a near-naked prisoner.

The hearing heard how Dr Carroll reiterated prison protocol to Dr Sykes on several occasions and in June 1998, following a patient's complaint, an internal inquiry and investigation took place and a new protocol was drawn up and signed by Dr Sykes.

Mr Seabrook said Dr Sykes changed the layout of his consulting room, moving his desk up to a security porthole so the patient's chair was not visible.

Mr Seabrook told the Committee: "We are considering the professional conduct of a professional man who was given large and considerable responsibility and power within a particularly sensitive type of institution."

The hearing was told how one prisoner, whom Dr Sykes treated at Armley, was transferred to a prison in Liverpool and visited there by the GP.

On his release, Dr Sykes picked him up and took him shopping to the Trafford Centre in Manchester where he allegedly spent £1,500 on gifts.

Mr Seabrook said Dr Sykes then took the man to a hotel where he asked for sex.

Dr Sykes' representative Christina Lambert said he used to be a GP in Birstall but his career there ended when he was accused of indecently assaulting a male patient.

The judge at the trial at Leeds Crown Court in June 1996 threw the case out and Dr Sykes was acquitted.

The hearing continues.