French psychiatrist convicted over affair with patient

BORDEAUX—A French court has ordered a psychiatrist to pay one of his patients 10,000 euros ($13,000) in damages for seducing her as she sought counseling to save her marriage, sources close to the case said Monday.

The Bordeaux appeals court said the 65-year-old psychiatrist had abused his position as a practitioner, taking advantage of the patient’s “fragile and frustrated” emotional state when they became lovers in the summer of 2003.

According to court documents, the woman consulted the doctor for a total of nine months. Three years later he admitted to fathering her child.

The psychiatrist said the relationship had been one between two “perfectly consenting adults” and accused the 45-year-old woman of manipulating him and pressuring him to leave his home.

A lower court had dismissed the case, but the woman appealed the ruling.