A therapist has been jailed for 16 months after he had sex with a patient living with a mental disorder while he was working in Stevenage.
Married Jason Bland, of Linkway in Clifton, was sentenced at St Albans Crown Court after pleading guilty to sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder by a care worker.
The offences, including full sex, were committed between December 2016 and February last year – when 45-year-old Bland was employed by the Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.
The victim has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and says she has attempted to take her own life.
Bland was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment and ordered to pay a £140 victim surcharge. Conditions were also imposed – he must not contact the victim, he must not enter Hertfordshire, and for 10 years he cannot work with adults considered at risk.
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