Jeremy Marquette also said that he does not ‘believe in rape’
An osteopath who told a patient “it’s OK to have sex with children as long as they have hit puberty” has been struck off.
Jeremy Marquette, who worked at Toward Health Clinic in Bristol, started a sexual relationship with one of his patients while continuing to treat her, a tribunal found.
Mr Marquette knew that the woman had a history of mental illness and previous sexual trauma, it found.
He also made a series of “wholly inappropriate” comments to patients related to sex, including that he “raped the brains” of two patients.
He also told a patient that he does not “believe in rape” and “there are always two sides to the story and the man should always be believed”, the tribunal heard.
The General Osteopathic Council (GOC) has now struck him off the register.
Mr Marquette became an osteopath in 2016.
The allegations were made by three different patients whom he treated between 2021 and 2023.
None of the patients can be named for legal reasons but are referred to in the tribunal’s decision as Patient C, Patient D and Patient E.
It was found that Mr Marquette had started a “wholly inappropriate personal and sexual relationship” with Patient C. She would stay over at his house, where they would hug and kiss and she would sleep topless in his bed, the tribunal heard.
She was a “vulnerable” person at the time and had experienced extensive amounts of childhood trauma.
Mr Marquette denied that they ever had a sexual relationship because there had been no “kissing or contact of a sexual nature” and he had not said anything in a romantic way.
But Sue Ware, the chair of the committee, said that the committee found the patient’s evidence “persuasive”.
“She gave a clear account of the relationship that had developed between her and [Mr Marquette],” Ms Ware said.
“[He] was also aware that Patient C had had problems with her mental health in the past and had been the victim of more than one sexual assault, as he had recorded in her notes: ‘Mental health quite bad after sexual assault 2 years ago July 2, was already in counselling for younger assault suicide.’”
Mr Arquette was found to have made “inappropriate” comments to Patient C, including saying that she was a “cripple” and that “it’s OK to have sex with children as long as they have hit puberty”.
He also said he would write a screenplay about her trauma and sell it to Hollywood.
Patient E alleged that she started dating Mr Marquette 15 months after being a patient. Mr Marquette denied the allegation and said it was ‘malicious and untrue.’
He made further comments that she was a “cripple” and would have died by suicide if it was not for him. He also got her to pay for his MOT and never paid her back.
Simon Butler, representing Mr Marquette, said that Patient C’s allegations had been “retaliatory” because of Patient E’s friendship with Mr Marquette.
“Mr Butler suggested that Patient C had been motivated by a deep sense of abandonment and profound betrayal,” the tribunal heard.
Mr Arquette also made inappropriate comments to Patient D, in which he said “I do not believe in rape” and “there are always two sides to the story and the man should always be believed”, the tribunal heard.
The GOC panel found that Mr Marquette was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.
The panel said: “The Committee considered that the facts found proved collectively demonstrated a serious departure from the standards required of an osteopath.
“The Committee’s findings demonstrated that, in summary, [he] had transgressed appropriate professional and sexual boundaries with more than one patient.
“One of those patients, Patient C, was vulnerable and as the Committee had found, [he] had been sexually motivated in some of his actions towards her.
“Despite the fact that the relatively brief relationship between [Mr Marquette] and Patient C’s had only involved touching, kissing and sharing the same bed (they had not had sexual intercourse), she was (as he had identified) vulnerable as a result of previous mental health difficulties and a previous history of sexual assault.
“The Committee therefore had no doubt that [his] conduct as regards Patient C alone had to be regarded as serious and would certainly have the effect of undermining public trust in the profession of osteopathy.”
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