Michael Haslam's autobiography (The Memoir Club 2006) is the sort of book which might never have seen the light of day without circumstances which gave the author a passing notoriety. In it, before tackling the issue of his fall from considerable grace, he seeks to balance that with a review of his personal and professional life. At the time he was holder of two medical Fellowships and an NHS Distinction Award; was Medical Director of an NHS Health Trust, Chairman of the Society of Clinical Psychiatrists and Editor of their Psychiatry for the New Millennium book, besides being a prolific author of medical writings and other published works including fiction (several of them available on Amazon).

A scandal, in relation to a long retired colleague's questionable behaviour decades before (and in which he would become embroiled) first blew up in 1997. In 1999, whilst celebrating his mother's hundredth birthday, Dr Haslam (b. 1934) was alerted to his photo on the Sunday Times front page, illustrating an article “Psychiatrists accused of multiple rapes ”.

It was decided to sue the paper; “Who, but a madman, would sue the Sunday Times with a guilty conscience ” is the question posed in the Foreword?

The case escalated beyond any expectations, culminating in Dr Haslam's conviction for raping a patient and a seven years custodial sentence (widely publicised) followed by successful appeal against it (not given equivalent publicity). Whilst on unconditional bail before beginning to serve a reduced sentence for lesser charges, he collected his MA degree in Theology!

Readers will wonder why the residual minor offences were upheld and may question whether imprisonment for them had been necessary, proportionate or appropriate?

The steps between first awareness of a ‘problem' and becoming a registered “sex offender” in Armley Gaol are traversed with cogent and (possibly unanswerable) questions posed about motivation, and the surfacing of very long delayed, possibly trumped-up, complaints. (It was as a student delegate to a Howard League Conference that I first got a taste for forensic psychiatry, seeing at Armley Prison in Leeds, under sentence of death, normal-looking red-headed young brothers who'd killed their father; an indelible memory. I never learnt whether they were reprieved or executed.)

The world, and the world of forensic psychiatric diagnosis and psychotherapeutic treatments, had changed continually during Dr Haslam's long professional life and mine.

His early research interests and publications embraced topics as diverse as Diver's Ear, obsessional states and vaginismus, leading to conferences under the international group of Medicine, Law and Ethics, chairing a symposium on gender disorders, and publication of books including Sexual Disorders (Butterworth/Heinemann), leading in turn to involvement with the Asociation of Marital and Sexual Therapists and the hosting of a national conference on psychosexual problems. With the salutary hindsight of painful experience, he admits to having had ‘a flirtatious manner' with females, and marital lapse during midlife crisis, but no more.

Could there have been the requisite criminal intent for the charges brought to court; assault without consent, and guilt beyond reasonable doubt after a time lapse of fifteen to twenty years – a long time in the ever-changing world of psychiatric practice? Dr Haslam sketches in the background to assist readers to form their own views, in the context of widely published damning opinions about him in the public domain.

The chronology detailed in Chapter 17 How are the mighty fallen merits careful and thorough reading. Two Royal Colleges had lost no time in distancing themselves; removing his Fellowship and Membership without awaiting his appeal. The bodies which he challenges for likely leaking of confidential information are unlikely to respond, so at this point (he has been a keen games player) the ball is once again in Dr Haslam's own court.

Despite all the flak endured by some of its members, The Society of Clinical Psychiatrists stood by him energetically throughout. It had been a ‘ginger group' challenging matters outwith the Royal College of Psychiatrists' remit, latterly making a central contribution to the debate about wrongful suspensions of doctors, which had become scandalously rife; supporting them individually until the vast majority were always eventually found innocent of their supposed misdemeanours. The Society's regularly published findings gradually bore fruit in changed government policy, but the problem is by no means buried in the past.

This book may seem over-inclusive in the early chapters, and different sections will appeal to different readers. But Dr Haslam's career was a lively and varied one, his account of it here laced with good humour and excellent anecdotes. It is also good to read of his resilience in prison, helped by religious faith and the support of his wife. He found himself at ease in communal living, which posed no threat after boarding school, halls of residence and the army! He engaged in learning (including computer skills) and in the shared camaraderie he found;with fellow inmates “helping each other, all in the same boat, often kind and sensitive to the problems of others…”

Peter Grahame Woolf

For another psychiatrist falsely charged of rape, which went all the way to crown court before being thrown out, see http://www.scpnet.com/Falkowski.htm (the accuser herself is now awaiting sentence),