A former doctor at Armley jail has been struck off by the General Medical Council after being found guilty of serious professional misconduct.

John Anthony Sykes, of Cleckheaton, appeared in front of the GMC's Professional Conduct Committee accused of carrying out intimate examinations of prisoners without clinical justification while he was a doctor at the Leeds prison.

The committee found that the 48-year-old GP had carried out the examinations without a chaperone or clinical justification and he had touched and massaged an inmate's genitals.

Striking him from the register, chairman of the committee panel Eileen Walker told him: "Such irresponsible behaviour was indecent, an abuse of your professional position, intended to exploit a vulnerable patient and likely to bring the medical profession into disrepute."

During the determination, bespectacled Dr Sykes, dressed in a black, pinstriped suit, purple shirt and tie, stared straight ahead. He was accompanied by his wife.

The three-week hearing in Manchester was told how Dr Sykes, of Scholes Lane, Scholes, made at least two unauthorised social visits to an inmate who had been transferred to HMP Altcourse in Liverpool and, on his release, took him shopping to the Trafford Centre in Manchester for clothes. He also met the former inmate in Leeds and gave him money.

The committee felt that Dr Sykes's relationships with inmates - known during the hearing as patients C and D - went beyond the normal doctor/patient relationship and were "clearly improper", but also said they did not accept the evidence of patients C and D unless there was supporting independent evidence.

Mrs Walker said the committee was also concerned by his "lack of contrition" during the course of the hearing and by the fact that he had demonstrated "little insight" into his repeated failings.

"Taking into account the numerous allegations admitted or found proved against you, the committee considers that your conduct amounted to a gross departure from the standards expected of a registered medical practitioner," she said.

Dr Sykes declined to comment on the committee's determination.