A MENTAL health support worker who had sexual intercourse with a patient has been jailed for two years.

Appearing for sentence at Bolton Crown Court, Muhmmad Faisal, aged 32, of Rochway, Whitefield, had previously admitted the offence of having sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder under the 2003 Sexual Offences Act.

Carl Hargan prosecuting said Faisal, who was an agency support worker had met the patient, who had had been sectioned last October with a bipolar disorder to the psychiatric ward, at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

After lending her his telephone in December last year she had been able to access the internet. A few days later the woman, who was still under the hospital, invited him to go to her home where sexual intercourse took place.

There then followed a number of further occasions when Faisal visited the woman for intercourse and one occasion where no condom was used.

He added: "It is the crown's submission that there is no way that Faisal could have had a sexual relationship if something had not been going on before that night."

Defending Graham Robinson said at the time of the incidents, Faisal was going through marriage difficulties He said: "He clearly knew that she was an in patient on a psychiatric ward. However, he was not working there every day and the three days that he did work he was assigned to a patient and wasn't aware of the details of other patients which included this woman."

He added: "He was a man of previous good character. That good name has gone that career in the psychiatric services has now gone. This was a man who worked on a day to day basis and not someone who groomed a patient. This was a situation at a time in his life where he was troubled. He received an invite from the woman to go around, and in going, he committed a gross breach of trust and it was bound to have an impact on the woman."

In a part of a victim impact statement read out by Judge Timothy Stead, the woman had said: "Since all these matters came to light recovery has been slower, and whereas this might have been achieved in two to three months, it has taken nine to 10 months. I was left me incredibly angry at the people in charge of my care. I felt he had used me for his own gratification."

Sentencing him Judge Stead said: "You were required to help and look after the welfare and well being of patients suffering from mental illness and disorder. What you did in effect wasn't for her benefit, it was for your own gratification."

"You above all others would have known that you could not take advanatage of the situation and harm her and her recovery and you pursued it to the point that you had intercourse with her, and even without a condom on one occasion.

Faisal was also placed on a public register banning him from working with vulnerable adults and children for 10 years.