How the Cambridge educated ‘sex addict’ GP Thomas Plimmer confessed to sleeping with 90 women and not being faithful to a single one
Patient reviews of GP Thomas Plimmer are effusive in their praise. He is an ’empathetic’ doctor, a ‘good listener’ with a ‘kind manner’. All accolades any doctor would be proud of, not least one working in a practice with a bulging patient list.
Quite what those patients must be thinking of Dr Thomas Plimmer’s ‘bedside’ manner now is less certain, for the handsome 40-year-old Cambridge University-educated medic has this week found himself thrust into the spotlight at a medical tribunal in which he stands accused of a string of lurid and decidedly unpalatable allegations.
Plimmer, who has no less than two degrees from Cambridge (one in pathology, the other medicine) faces accusations from half a dozen women about his behaviour, including a ‘vulnerable’ colleague who claims he forced her into weekly sex sessions at his GP practice in Wiltshire.
The doctor’s consulting rooms are alleged to have been the chosen meeting point for liaisons. These included at least two women he met on dating sites. He is accused of engaging in sex acts with them during working hours, some of which he admits.
Unsolicited photographs of a sexual nature, messages laden with innuendo, the list of allegations is shocking to say the least; not least the claim that he told one woman to kill herself after she accused him of sexually harassing her.
Dr Thomas Plimmer, 40, faces accusations from half a dozen women about his behaviour, including a ‘vulnerable’ colleague who claims he forced her into weekly sex sessions
Plimmer is accused of engaging in sex acts with them during working hours, some of which he admits
In that case he claims there had been a consensual relationship between them, while he admits sending explicit images to her and another woman.
The details of this unsavoury saga have been played out over video conference this week, at an online hearing of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.
Quite what the tribunal will decide about the behaviour and actions of Dr Plimmer remains to be seen.
But as the Mail has discovered this week, Thomas Plimmer is, by his own admission, a doctor with what might be delicately put as a less-than-conventional approach to personal relationships.
On Thursday, one of his accusers told the tribunal Plimmer was a ‘sex addict’ who would discuss with her his ‘untreated sex addiction’. ‘I was used as an object who kept a sex addict from being bored,’ said the woman, a colleague of the medic, who yesterday claimed Plimmer had pressurised her to join him at a Birmingham sex club he attended.
Her, at times harrowing, at times sordid, evidence included the lurid claim that the doctor had told her he had sold her dirty underwear on eBay. Tom Day, representing Plimmer, suggested a catalogue of encounters were entirely consensual, to which the woman replied: ‘There were times I did what I was supposed to do. I served my purpose in amusing him on a day at work. There was a pattern of grooming.’
And sex addiction is something on which Plimmer himself has previously spoken, giving a candid interview to a Sunday newspaper in 2016 about his battle with the condition.
Under the headline ‘I was a GP . . . how could I also be a sex addict,’ the doctor, who was photographed but used his mother’s maiden name rather than his professional surname, spoke of living a ‘double life’.
Plimmer was working as a GP during his various alleged encounters with his accusers, which stretch from 2018 to 2021
‘On the face of it, I had a life most people would envy — a happy relationship and a well-paid, steady job as a GP,’ he told the Sunday Mirror. ‘I had convinced myself I would never be found out.
‘But eventually my world crashed down around me and I ended up on the brink of suicide.’
He went on to describe a sexual compulsion that struck from the age of 10 and developed further as he hit his teenage years.
Plimmer also recounted that from his very first serious relationship, aged 18, he had been perennially unfaithful. ‘I’ve never been faithful to any of them,’ he said of his girlfriends. ‘I’ve slept with almost 90 women.’
The medic, who graduated from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, in 2007 and began his career as a GP in Huntingdon, Cambs, described scouring the internet for porn and arranging to meet women for sex on dating sites, while in a relationship with a fellow GP, until one day ‘my lies caught up with me’.
Plimmer gained his medical degree from the world-renowned Cambridge University
He was, he said, dumped and sacked, after checks on his internet history were carried out.
His confessional account is both shocking and distressing. ‘The shame of confessing to my mum that I was addicted to sex was unbearable. I hit rock bottom and I almost hanged myself twice.’
Back in 2016 he praised Sex Addicts Anonymous (and a 12-step recovery programme just like Alcoholics Anonymous) for saving his life.
‘I realised sex was filling a void in my life because I wasn’t happy with who I was as a person,’ he said. ‘I’ve also had a lot of psychotherapy and, although I’ve had a few relapses, I feel like I am in recovery.’
Curiously the interview for the health pages of the Sunday Mirror came just three months after the doctor had given another interview, this time using his actual surname, to another national newspaper, this time about faking orgasms.
One of his accusers told the tribunal Plimmer was a ‘sex addict’ who would discuss with her his ‘untreated sex addiction’
Easily abashed he is not.
In 2016, Plimmer was hopeful of two things: writing a book and working as a doctor again. Whether he has penned a book remains to be seen (he did recently pop up as an expert in the pages of Stylist magazine on the subject of habits that can aid your hormonal balance), but as this week’s tribunal has made clear, he did manage to achieve the second of those ambitions.
He was working as a GP during his various alleged encounters with his accusers, which stretch from 2018 to 2021. In May 2018, the tribunal heard, he met a woman known as Miss C on a dating app, took her to the tennis at Wimbledon and even had dinner with her parents, before making excuses not to see her.
Among the pretexts he is said to have used was the health of his mother — an attractive, very sprightly 72-year-old, who declined to comment when approached by the Mail this week.
He said she had had ‘several serious strokes’ and needed to be in a rehab facility and also claimed his brother, two years his senior, was unwell in hospital when he cancelled dates with another woman.
Plimmer recently pop up as an expert in the pages of Stylist magazine on the subject of habits that can aid your hormonal balanc
But Mark Monaghan, representing the General Medical Council, said: ‘It was completely fabricated. He is a frequent, plausible and regular liar . . . these were deliberate lies to allow him to juggle and see other women instead.’
Truth or lies; since the allegations Plimmer has not being working as a GP but, according to his LinkedIn profile, last July launched as a ‘mind, body and emotional wellness practitioner’ (his words), in Gloucester, where he lives. The medic’s professional social media pages call him a ‘former GP’. He also goes by the professional name Dr Matthew, his middle name, and he introduces himself thus: ‘I qualified as medical doctor in 2007, working in various areas of medicine and then became a GP in 2012.
‘I have met thousands of patients struggling with daily existence, who feel unfulfilled, keep on making the same ‘mistakes’ and feel helpless. Myself included.
‘Having witnessed this for years I decided there has got to be more to life than just survival. So, I chose to devote my time to studying and practising an holistic mind, body and emotional approach. I combine my expertise in medicine, physics, psychology, biology and philosophy to help others heal, experience true wellness and discover their full exceptional potential.’
Testimonials on his company website this week included a glowing report from Gloucestershire University about seminars to staff, although by Thursday evening the university name had been replaced by the words ‘an institute of higher education’.
Since the allegations Plimmer has not being working as a GP but, according to his LinkedIn profile, last July launched as a ‘mind, body and emotional wellness practitioner’
There are also testimonials from ‘school staff’ and ‘parents’, although what establishment this refers to is unclear.
Clearly in demand, earlier this year he was in Cambridge delivering a workshop on the science behind the ‘therapeutic benefits of art, movement and colour’ and he has also recently formed part of a panel offering men support in helping their partners cope with the menopause.
His website offers free initial consultations, with private sessions from £65 through to packages for employers and groups ranging from £250 to £775.
Having attended top-performing King Edward VI College, in Stourbridge, before winning a place at Cambridge, Plimmer now also cites diplomas in neuro and behavioural psychology, neuroplasticity, emotional intelligence, epigenetics and quantum physics on his website. The latter is ‘very relevant, I assure you,’ visitors to the site are told.
He has also embraced meditation and mindfulness and his social media pages are peppered with encouragement to his followers, navigating the hurdles of life. Empathy, shame and acceptance are repeat hashtags. In July, he put up an instructive post about shame and being trapped in unhelpful patterns of behaviour on his Instagram account. ‘What is the answer?’ he wrote. ‘Firstly, accepting the behaviours and secretes [sic] you are responsible for, nothing more, nothing less.
Plimmer engaged in sexual activities with multiple women at his GP, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal (pictured) heard
‘Secondly, have empathy for yourself. You are not the sum total of your unhelpful behaviours and secretes, you are many other things too, lots of them positive: you are human; we all fall short at times; you are worthy.
‘Thirdly, surround yourself with empathy both in terms of your environment and the people in it.’
His last post was on Monday when he uploaded a photograph of a yellow ribbon, acknowledging that September 10 had been World Suicide Prevention Day.
The accompanying message ended thus: ‘The good news is that emotional pain, which is energy, can be eased and transformed into healing, wisdom, compassion and life.’
Clearly Plimmer has been on an emotional journey of his own, but what the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service will ultimately decide about the allegations before them and the cricket-loving medic’s freedom to practise as a doctor remains to be seen.
Contacted by the Mail, a scrupulously polite and well-spoken Plimmer said: ‘The hearing is still ongoing and I will be under oath soon so unfortunately I am unable to comment on anything at the moment I’m afraid.’
Source: Read Full Article
