Professor Andrew Kaye: Tribunal finds brain surgeon made sexual advance on junior doctor

Former Melbourne University professor of brain surgery Andrew Kaye became “fascinated” by a young woman before making an unwanted sexual advance.

Former head of brain surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital Professor Andrew Kaye made an unwanted sexual advance on a junior doctor, a tribunal has found. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

World-renowned former Melbourne University professor of brain surgery Dr Andrew Kaye’s reputation is in tatters, with a tribunal late on Tuesday finding he made an unwanted sexual advance on a junior female medico.

Dr Kaye, who is the brother of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kaye and a former Hawthorn board member, left Australia for Israel shortly after being accused of sexual misconduct in 2019.

A panel of three Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal members who presided over Dr Kaye’s professional misconduct hearing found Dr Kaye’s victim was an “honest witness”.

The tribunal also found large parts of Dr Kaye’s denials of wrongdoing were “implausible”.

“Dr Kaye was at times evasive, avoiding directly providing answers which would be inconsistent with his own earlier evidence …” the tribunal said in a lengthy and scathing decision.

“ … it is difficult to accept Dr Kaye’s version of events, when not otherwise supported by other evidence.”

Former professor of neurosurgery Andrew Kaye, 74, leaves the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal earlier this year.

Professor Andrew Kaye was head of neurosurgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

The allegation against the married Dr Kaye was that he invited the young woman to his office alone, drank whisky with her which he said he “got … especially for (the woman) to have with (him) now”.

Dr Kaye asked the young woman to call him Andrew, rather than “Prof”. He also told the woman he liked that his office window did not look over a public space.

“I prefer it that way, because it’s private and no one can see inside,” he said.

A two-day hearing earlier this year heard the woman felt pressured into drinking with Dr Kaye, who was among the most highly regarded brain surgeons in the world and who was able to make or break young medical professionals’ careers.

Dr Kaye sat close to the woman on his office couch, and touched her on the arm, thigh, hip, back and bottom.

A friend of the woman said she was “upset and distressed” afterwards, having recoiled from the elderly Dr Kaye and pushed his hands away.

Professor Andrew Kaye, pictured in theatre.

“Her voice was shaky, and she was talking in a rushed fashion. (She) also told me she felt like she was having panic attacks and she was in shock saying, ‘oh my god, I don’t know what to do’,” the friend said.

The tribunal found Dr Kaye had become “fascinated with (the woman)” sending her a large number of personal text messages.

In a lengthy decision, the tribunal found “despite Dr Kaye’s good character … he failed to maintain professional boundaries … in that he engaged in uninvited conduct of a sexual nature towards (the woman)”.

Royal Melbourne Hospital conducted its own internal investigation into the allegations against Dr Kaye before the Medical Board of Australia started the professional misconduct case before the tribunal.

The tribunal will reconvene at a later date to impose a sanction on Dr Kaye.

Originally published as Professor Andrew Kaye: Tribunal finds brain surgeon made sexual advance on junior doctor