Kingston GP partner cleared of misconduct after neighbours claim she 'harassed them'

A Kingston GP partner has been cleared of misconduct after a medical tribunal threw out claims from neighbours that she had harassed them.

Audrey Barreto had been accused of talking loudly, deliberately leaving a ball belonging to the couple’s children in her front garden, staring at them and making derogatory comments.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), over multiple hearings in 2024, found allegations made by the couple, referred to as Mr A and Mrs B in the report, not proven.

The couple’s claims dated from October 2013 to November 2022, while Dr Barreto was practising as a salaried partner at a GP surgery. Mr A recorded many of the alleged incidents in an antisocial behaviour diary, which he said he was told to keep by police.

The tribunal found multiple diary entries concerning incidents alleged to have taken place in 2013 and 2014 to be unreliable, as Mr A made them in 2015 after the neighbours had become involved in a dispute.

This included claims that Dr Barreto knocked on the wall of his property and made noise over a morning in October 2013, parked her car in a way that obstructed his driveway three times that November and stared at Mr A or Mrs B multiple times from January to July 2014.

The tribunal also threw out the couple’s allegations that Dr Barreto had laughed, talked or played music loudly in the early hours of the morning or late at night over multiple incidents in 2015. It ruled there was no direct evidence to prove she had been responsible for the alleged noise.

The couple’s claims that Dr Barreto made derogatory comments about them in 2015 and 2016 were also thrown out by the tribunal, who said Mr A deliberately withheld information on the origins of recordings they provided.

The tribunal found Mr A lied about what he knew of the recordings and there was no objective evidence the voice in them was that of Dr Barreto.

Mrs B further alleged in a statement the couple’s children were still scared to play in their garden after accidentally kicking a ball into Dr Barreto’s garden in September 2015, which she claimed was left in a bush in the GP partner’s front garden for around six weeks.

The tribunal decided Dr Barreto’s account that she likely put the ball in her front garden for it to be collected more plausible.

The tribunal only found proven claims, over nine years, that Dr Barreto had parked her car in a way that partly obstructed the couple’s driveway three times, left a ball in her front garden, took two photos which inadvertently captured their house and displayed a sign in her window that she described as a protective prayer.

It threw out the couple’s allegation that her behaviour was racially motivated, with the report noting her multicultural background and that the tribunal accepted evidence she was not racist and was unaware of Mrs B’s ethnic background until 2021.

Dr Barreto provided testimony from 11 character witnesses, including a statement which read: “In the many years that I have known her, Dr Barreto is one of the most fair-minded people I have met.

"She treats everyone with decency and respect, regardless of skin colour, religious background or ethnicity.”

The report added: “The tribunal has found that there was nothing improper, oppressive or unreasonable in the conduct, nor could it cause alarm or distress, and therefore it could not constitute harassment.”

The fact the case was brought before a tribunal when the allegations did not appear to relate in any way to her profession has been discussed at length in a Reddit thread dedicated to doctors.

Many commenters were furious the doctor was put through the ordeal.