A doctor accused of encouraging a patient to make false allegations of abuse told a tribunal yesterday that he was only trying to “break through” her silence. John Eastgate, 53, said he was dealing with a deeply disturbed and frightened 13-year-old, who often curled up in a ball on the floor, crying and refusing to explain what was wrong.
As part of his therapy he adopted a conversational question-and-answer style to draw her out of herself and get to the “nature of her distress”. It was during one of these sessions that he claims she brought up the sexual abuse without any “direction” or “suggestion” from him.