A married GP began a string of affairs with patients in Shropshire after getting “too intimate” with them about his crumbling marriage, a medical tribunal heard yesterday.

Dr Steven Ashenford, 34, was going through a rocky patch with his Russian wife following the birth of their disabled daughter and would confide in patients about his troubles during their appointments.

But senior doctors warned him about his behaviour saying he might be pushing “professional boundaries”.

Yet despite the ticking off, Ashenford began affairs with two patients, and allegedly a third with a teenage girl aged 17 who began e-mailing him.

Ashenford had a two-month affair with one woman patient after they exchanged information about their personal lives.

They swopped mobile telephone numbers, and during a consultation “embraced and kissed passionately”.

The doctor was eventually arrested on suspicion of rape, after bosses found out about the teenager’s e-mails when Ashenford confessed the girl had a crush on him.

No charges were brought, but inquiries revealed he also had a five-month affair with a third woman who swapped mobile phone numbers with the trainee GP after she went to him for treatment for depression.

Yesterday Ashenford, who now lives in Aberdeen, faced a General Medical Council hearing in Manchester, accused of affairs between February 2006 and April 2007. He admits relationships with the two older women, but denies an affair with the teenage girl.

Mr Peter Atherton, counsel for the GMC, said Ashenford admitted giving out his personal mobile phone number to patients.

He began confiding his problems after taking up a post as a GP at Oakengates Medical Practice, Telford, in 2006.

Later when he got a post as a senior house officer at a paediatrics department at the town’s Princess Royal Hospital, he told his boss Dr Francis Hinde about the problems with his wife.

When Ashenford moved to Sutton Hill surgery in Telford, he allegedly began the affair with the teenage girl. The alleged affair was exposed in July 2007.

The hearing continues.

By Andrew Morris