A Melbourne nurse allegedly sent a psychiatric patient sexualised messages and tried to kiss a female colleague in a car park, a tribunal heard this week.

Registered nurse Lachlan Campbell appeared before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Monday to answer the allegations brought by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

Campbell initially admitted to the allegations regarding the patient and also accepted the allegations put forward by the then grad nurse, the VCAT was told.

He was working as a registered nurse at a psych ward facility in late 2019 when the alleged behaviour occurred.

Campbell allegedly focused on a patient in the ward, sending her explicit photos and messages, which included details of his ‘sexual fantasies’, the Tribunal was told.

Campbell and the patient had initially chatted about ‘horrendous’ dates they had been on with other people and discovered they were both users of the same app, Hinge.

The patient said that it would be ‘awkward’ if they matched on Hinge, and so Campbell offered to show her how to change her app’s location settings.

The Tribunal was told when the patient changed her location details, she then matched with Campbell.

Melbourne nurse Lachlan Campbell allegedly sent a psych patient sexualised messages and tried to kiss a young female colleague. He told the VCAT the allegations did not ‘sit right’ but decided to not contest the issues because he ‘just wanted it finished’. (Unrelated stock image)

The pair messaged each other on Hinge before Campbell allegedly ‘suggested’ that they switch to Snapchat because it would be ‘dangerous for his nursing career’ if they kept communicating via the dating app, the Tribunal was told.

The VCAT also heard allegations that Campbell sent the patient images of his erect penis and asked if they could meet up, but the woman told him she was going on a holiday and would be away for a while. Campbell responded he was ‘happy to wait’.

It was claimed Campbell also left cigarettes and filters under the patient’s pillow in the ward and allegedly asked her not to tell anyone about their communication.

Campbell, who was allegedly ‘very friendly’ with women, told the patient she was ‘attractive’ and that he had ‘never had a patient as pretty as her’, the Tribunal heard.

It was alleged he said she was ‘not like the usual patients in the psych ward’ during one of several conversations the Tribunal heard were of a ‘sexual context’.

The VCAT hearing included claims that Campbell told the patient he ‘imagined he was the night nurse’ so he could enter the room at night to ‘touch her’ while she was not wearing underwear.

The patient alleged Campbell touched himself and told her he was lonely and he wished for a ‘cuddle buddy’, the Tribunal heard.

Campbell also asked the patient if she wanted to catch up for a beer but she never responded so he deleted her from his Snapchat. 

The patient, who was present throughout Monday’s marathon hearing, recalled that she had been ‘very unwell’ and ‘terrified’ when she entered the psych ward.

She also said she was not thinking ‘rationally’ at the time.

The Tribunal heard that she reported Campbell to a facility employee for ‘sexting while he was on duty’ before the matter was referred to the nursing board.

Campbell, who told the Tribunal he worked at various areas within the Melbourne facility, was separately accused of sexually harassing a former colleague.

The VCAT heard allegations that he touched and hugged a former grad nurse and also asked for her Snapchat.

It was further alleged that Campbell sent intimate images to the young female nurse and asked her out on multiple occasions before she ceased communication.

He also allegedly sent her an image of the storeroom at the facility they both worked at, suggesting they could have ‘some fun and no one will know’, the Tribunal heard. 

The woman claimed she understood Campbell’s alleged message accompanied by the image of the storeroom to ‘mean something sexual’, so she ignored it.

The Tribunal heard that after the grad nurse declined Campbell’s invitation to the 2019 AFL Grand Final because they ‘supported the same team’, he allegedly messaged her to say they could have their own ‘after party’ with some ‘fun in the bedroom’.

The female colleague claimed to the VCAT that she had been receiving messages from Campbell ‘almost daily’ before she deleted him from Snapchat. 

The Tribunal also heard allegations Campbell grabbed the woman in a car park and attempted to hug and kiss her.

The woman, who the Tribunal heard worked with Campbell on about 20 occasions in little more than a month, reported his alleged conduct and never worked with him again.

Barrister Amber Harris, for the nursing board, said the Tribunal could place weight on the ‘coincidental’ similarities of the allegations from two separate women, the patient and the grad nurse.

However, Campbell turned the hearing on its head when he said that he could not recall any of the allegations, so he could not deny them.

He told the Tribunal the allegations did not ‘sit right’ but decided to not contest the issues because he ‘just wanted it finished’.

‘I wasn’t up for the fight,’ Campbell said. 

Campbell, who told the Tribunal he was a ‘hugger’, also disputed some of the grad nurse’s claims – including the car park allegation because he doesn’t ‘use car parks’.

He ‘disagreed’ that he had attempted to hug and kiss his colleague. 

Campbell, a motorcyclist and Richmond supporter, also claimed that he could not recall sending the storeroom image, while also claiming he and the grad nurse had been in a dispute over money for tickets to a post-Grand Final event.

Campbell maintained that he wasn’t just friendly with women, but ‘friendly with staff of all genders’, and denied he was romantically interested in the grad nurse.

Member Siran Nyabally adjourned the hearing late in the day after Harris requested additional time to prepare evidence after the matter was set down with an agreed statement of allegations.

The patient was unable to read a victim impact statement after sitting silently on the remote hearing link all day.

Campbell, who was self-represented, will front the Tribunal again at a later date.