Uni Professor tried to Seduce Female Student under Hypnosis

A university professor has been struck off after hypnotising a female student and trying to seduce her while she was in a trance.

Dr Waseem Alladin was a practitioner psychologist at a top-ranked university.

A panel at the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service was told that a mature pupil, identified as ‘Student 1’, chose to join Alladin’s class as she found him “quirky and different”.

She and other female students started to meet with the lecturer for informal meetings and the group began calling themselves ‘The Apprentice Club’.

Over the next year, Alladin manipulated the “vulnerable” student and tried to stop her from taking prescribed anti-depressive medication and undergo hypnosis instead.

He began meeting her alone and his actions became more disturbing.

Alladin tried to kiss her toes, put his finger in her mouth and stuck his tongue in her ear. He also told her “if he was younger and more attractive, she would have slept with him”.

He tried to convince her that they had been “lovers in a past life” and he had been waiting “600 years” to be back with her.

Alladin put her photograph up in his office and told her she was his “soulmate”, his “professional wife” and an “earth mother”.

When his advances were rejected, he said she needed to “step up and give him what he needed” as he had five other students “waiting”.

The professor eventually persuaded her to undergo hypnosis. However, he then took photographs of her and stroked her face with a rose.

He said the student was “irresistible to men” because of her “serpent power”.

Alladin hypnotised another girl known as ‘Student 3’ and recorded the session on his phone. He told her that her “inner beauty came out”.

He said she “glowed and smiled” and asked what she would do if he tried to kidnap her.

At the tribunal, Alladin claimed he did not hypnotise either girl and was in fact teaching them “self-hypnosis”. But neither girl knew that they were supposedly being taught the technique.

Student 3 also had her head massaged while hypnotised after the professor had put her under by “staring into her eyes”.

Another girl, ‘Student 2’, said she had a “weird experience” while sat in a “snug” with Alladin and thought he was trying to hypnotise her.

She later sent him a “full-body photograph” of herself after he claimed he needed it for “healing”.

The students eventually began to talk to each other about Alladin’s bizarre behaviour. The professor then attempted to “drive a wedge” between them.

He told Student 1 that his spirit “guide” had told him he could not trust Student 2, who he said had a “darkness” within her.

At the same time, he told Student 2 that “his higher being” had told him to be wary of Student 1 as he had yet to “work her out”.

The matter came to light after one of the students complained to the university’s student advice service.

Throughout the tribunal, Alladin insisted that he had no sexual interest in any of the girls.

He said: “It has been claimed that I was sucking her toes; I was putting my thumb in her ears.

“That is revolting and disgusting. It’s not my behaviour.

“No creature on this earth, in this life, because she talks of all kinds of life, or paranormal, can accuse me of having done that.”

But the tribunal said: “There was no element of coercion, but the behaviour had predatory elements in certain other respects, in that it sought to exploit the health problems [Alladin] perceived Student 1 and Student 3 to be experiencing.

“Furthermore, it was undertaken with sexual gratification in mind.

“There was an unequal balance of power between Alladin on the one hand and the students on the other.”

“Indeed, [Alladin] sought to exacerbate the vulnerability of Student 1 by persuading her to cease taking anti-depressant medication in favour of the hypnosis he proposed to offer.

“Furthermore, he sought to increase the vulnerability of Student 1 and Student 2 by seeking to drive a wedge between them.”

It was concluded that Alladin’s offences were sexually motivated and amounted to misconduct. He was immediately struck off.