9D3C-GDZG-QFST-H7SV
Lee James Heather
Last updated: 2026-10-18T09:33:02.803Z
- Practitioner name
- Lee James Heather
- Name as recorded
- Lee James Heather
- Profession
- Registered nurse (mental health, eating disorder clinic)
- Decision date
- 2010-09-01
- Offence category
- Sexual misconduct with a patient
- Offence
- Working in a public hospital eating disorder clinic, he groomed a highly vulnerable patient on naso-gastric feeding (an incest survivor with borderline personality disorder) despite specific warnings, set up secret 'counselling', had her use a pseudonym for him, took her on outings and began a physical relationship. He kept going after his director warned him, and tried to get her to give false evidence to investigators. No criminal charges reported. Unsatisfactory professional conduct, including infamous conduct in a professional respect.
- Outcome
- Barred from reapplying for only 2.5 years, subject to a boundaries course, counselling and an oral exam; permanently barred from mental health nursing; 12 months' supervision on return. Each party paid its own costs. QCAT (Judge Fleur Kingham, Deputy President, with Jenny Goodwin, Dr Trevor Jordan and Barbara Soong) accepted the Board's agreed orders, acknowledging the 2.5-year period 'may appear to be shorter than might otherwise have been ordered'.
- Outcome type
- Disqualified (not permanent)
- Outcome length
- 2.5 years
- Category
- Not recorded
- Tribunal
- Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal
- Case name
- Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia v Heather [2010] QCAT 423
- Citation
- [2010] QCAT 423
- Tribunal decision date
- 2010-09-01
- State
- QLD
- Tribunal city
- Not recorded
- National board
- Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia
- Registration status
- Not recorded
- Official outcome (tribunal/board)
- Disqualified (not permanent) 2.5 years
- Source confidence
- Not recorded
- Notes
- Proceeded under the repealed Nursing Act 1992 (Qld). Permanently barred: No Source: CaseChat AU, 2010-09-01
Decision-makers
- Judge Fleur Kingham (Deputy President) · · Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal
- Jenny Goodwin · · Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal
- Dr Trevor Jordan · · Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal
- Barbara Soong · · Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal
Sources
https://casechat.au/cases/au/nursing-and-midwifery-board-of-australia-v-heather