A rogue social worker has been suspended for 18 months after a professional standards panel found him guilty of strangling and beating a woman.
David Best, appeared before a fitness to practice Social Work panel to face allegations of assaulting a woman.
The allegations surrounded a night that the woman, known as Person A at the hearing, spent at Best’s home.
It was heard that Mr Best pushed the woman off a bed, punched her on the head, punched her on the body and strangled her against a wall.
The panel was told that she was left with a foot imprint on her back after the assault, which she says left her with tinnitus, anxiety and depression, according to a report in Hull Daily Mail.
The panel for the hearing, held by Social Work England, which is the professional body for registering social workers down south, found the allegations proven to the civil law standard.
Mr Best, from Hull was working for a homeless charity at the time, and is also a jujitsu martial arts instructor.
At the hearing, Louise Atkin, acting for Social Work England said: “This was conduct in Mr Best’s personal life. But social workers must understand the need to maintain high standards of personal and professional conduct."
The panel was told that Person A has a rare genetic condition that can cause someone to injure more easily.
Miss Atkin said: “He was aware of her condition and it would have been clear to him she was physically weaker and susceptible to injury by way of her condition.
“It’s clear this was an assault which involved multiple hits and punches and kicks and strangulation, therefore in my submission this was a serious assault on a vulnerable person.”
She said the behaviour “falls short” of standards expected of a social worker.
The hearing had earlier been told that Person A was physically attacked in the early hours of the morning. She woke at 3.30am to use the toilet and says he awoke at the same time.
Miss Atkin said: “She described him pushing her out of bed and pushing her again with his leg, she says she returned to bed and he wrapped his legs around her face and neck and she struggled to breathe.
“He pushed her again and she fell on the floor. He began hitting her with hammer fists and kicking her.”
She added: “He grabbed her with both hands while on the floor and strangled her and said ‘if I wanted to hurt you I could’. He let go after a few seconds and told her to get out of his house.”
In his submission to the panel, Mr Best, who was not represented and did not attend the hearing, said the allegations were “false and malicious” and he was restraining the woman after she suffered a night terror.
When that was put to Person A, she said: “You would have thought that someone with his experience of martial arts could restrain someone without leaving a foot imprint on their back.
“Why did he strangle me against the wall or hit me so hard I had to have major brain surgery and had a stroke. If it was malicious I wouldn’t have reported him to the police or called my mum to pick me up at 4am from his house.”
The panel was told that Person A reported the assault to the police within an hour, and he was arrested but charges were later dropped.
The woman said she later suffered a stroke and needed “major brain surgery”, although this was not part of the allegations.
The panel was shown photographs of various injuries which were said to have resulted from the attack, including bruising to the woman’s face, neck, breast and shoulders and knee.
Mr Best was working at Doorstep of Hull, a homeless charity, at the time.
A spokesman for the charity did not confirm or deny whether Mr Best was still employed there, and said: “We don’t employ our employees as social workers and they are CRB checked. If an issue came up with a CRB check we would contact our insurers and Health and Safety consultants and do a risk assessment and take proper action at that point.”
During the final hours of the hearing, the panel spent a significant amount of time in private session discussing the legality of their options and taking counsel from legal representatives including Miss Atkin.
At the conclusion of the hearing the panel confirmed they had decided to impose an 18 month interim suspension on Mr Best which begins immediately.
Interim orders are imposed when concerns about a social worker’s fitness to practise are so serious that public safety could be put at risk, or there would be a risk to the social worker themselves.
In this case it was decided that the interim order was necessary for the wider protection of public safety.
The interim order begins immediately and will be reviewed every six months by adjudicators, unless the order is changed, or there is a need to apply to the High Court for an extension. If it is extended, it will be reviewed every three months.
