A DISCIPLINARY hearing has heard how a staff nurse from Clayton-le-Moors had a sexual relationship with a hospital patient.

Stephen Clegg, 42, of Clayton-le-Moors, worked in an adult cystic fibrosis unit on Pearce Ward at Wythenshawe Hospital, South Manchester, when the affair took place.

He has admitted having the relationship, and having personal relationships with three other patients, one a teenager, between 1996 and 1999.

The Nursing Midwifery Council Professional Conduct Committee, which will determine whether Mr Clegg is guilty of misconduct, heard that he had said he would leave his job when confronted with the allegation.

Charge nurse John Wheeler said he challenged Mr Clegg in March 1999, two days after a patient told him he had had a sexual relationship with the woman, known as patient C.

"I confronted Mr Clegg with a direct question, did he have a sexual relationship with patient C and he replied yes he did.

"He looked very guilty, he looked pale and he was obviously concerned about what was going to take place after that.

"It put me in a very compromising position because patient C had already explained to me she didn't want her identity revealed. She was frightened as well as feeling used and abused. "

Representing Mr Clegg, Paul Mallaney said Mr Wheeler's first instinct when confronting his client was to punch him.

"I was damned annoyed," said Mr Wheeler.

"When you are dealing with patients I don't think you should be leaving yourself wide open to that level of misinterpretation. You know that the boundaries are set out and I was annoyed. He let himself down, he let me down and I felt he was letting the unit down as whole."

Violet Nevins, an auxiliary nurse on the 11-bed unit, told the council she had found Mr Clegg crying on the floor of another patient's room after hearing another patient he had had a personal relationship with -- patient A -- was extremely ill after undergoing a heart, lung and liver transplant.

"He was missing for a while so I went to see where he was and I found him in room 10 with another patient and he was on the floor crying.

"The patient was sat up in the bed and he was kneeling and rocking on the floor and crying. "

Asked whether she could have been mistaken she said: "No I could not.

"Stephen was different in the way that he would just go along into young girls' or young boys' rooms by himself. Other nurses would ask to be chaperoned. Stephen wouldn't leave the door open."

Mrs Nevins said she spoke to him about it several times but he replied that he was a qualified nurse.

Anne Pearson was the night sister on duty. She said: "He was in a state, quite distressed and he asked to be allowed to go off duty to visit patient A who had had the transplant and was deteriorating rapidly and not expected to last the night.

"When I pushed him further he admitted he and patient A had been having a relationship for three months. He said he couldn't continue, he needed to be allowed to go because he was in such distress about the situation."

Mrs Pearson said she explained to him he could be struck off, she said, but Mr Mallaney said the trust had investigated and did not agree.

The hearing continues.