A DOCTOR who secretly filmed women in York city centre has been suspended for nine months.

Dr Steven Forde, 45, admitted following a young woman through York city centre to film her legs, skirt and body for sexual pleasure.

The York Hospital consultant anaesthetist used a camera equipped with a telephoto lens, concealed in a specially adapted bag. He operated it using a “fire switch” hidden in a pouch.

He told police he had done it before and had other images of women at home, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard.

Natasha Tahta, prosecuting for the General Medical Council, said Forde’s sexual misconduct was so serious he should be struck off.

But a panel suspended him for only nine months after defence barrister Mark Ainsworth said he was “on the road to redemption”.

Forde told the panel he has been undergoing treatment for “underlying issues” that cause his behaviour and insisted he has not indulged in his secret filming since his arrest.

Magistrates had acquitted the married father-of-three when prosecutors offered no evidence but he admitted the offences at the misconduct hearing in Manchester.

Matters relating to Forde’s health were heard behind closed doors.

Friends and colleagues knew Forde as a “conscientious and meticulous” professional and family man, the hearing was told.

He told the panel his world came crashing down when he was confronted by a security guard who caught him in May 2013.

He said he was working at York Hospital until midnight and on call until 8am. He had gone to take woodland photographs then went into York and used the “live view” camera setting to film the woman.

The former RAF medic, who served in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, told hospital investigators he behaved like that once or twice a week and “more in the summer”.

Forde, who was supported by wife Beverley throughout the hearing, confessed to a ten-year “compulsion” that led him to commit such acts as a “reward” when stressed.

He was given a formal warning by hospital bosses and returned to work in March. He must not examine female patients without a chaperone, except in life-threatening cases, nor undertake unaccompanied formal meetings with female trainees in his role as training programme director with York Hospitals NHSFoundation Trust.