A New Brunswick regulatory body, which will soon consider a former St. John's psychiatrist's application to have privileges reinstated, says it has been contacted by a second woman who had filed a complaint of misconduct.  

James Hanley's medical licence was revoked in March by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador. Weeks later, a similar college in New Brunswick followed suit.

James Hanley lost his medical licence in Newfoundland and Labrador this winter.
(CBC

Hanley had closed his St. John's practice in 2005, and moved to New Brunswick, where he worked at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown.

The Newfoundland and Labrador college made its decision based on the complaint of former patient Kathleen Wiseman, who said Hanley acted inappropriately by having sex with her while he was treating her.

Hanley recently asked the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick to consider reinstating his privileges.

Ed Schollenberg, registrar of the college, said he has since been contacted by a second woman who had once made an allegation against Hanley in Newfoundland and Labrador, but later withdrew it.

Schollenberg said the woman decided to contact him after she learned Hanley wishes to be licenced again.

"It does suggest there might be a pattern," said Schollenberg.

"It doesn't mean there is a pattern — it doesn't mean anything beyond that — but I think that's rather different from the sense which we had been working under, and the military had been operating under, that they were dealing with a psychiatrist that had made one error."

Wiseman, who laid a complaint with the Newfoundland and Labrador college in 2005, said she has plenty of questions about the other complaint.

She said she had been certain that she was not the only patient who had sex with Hanley. She learned of the second complainant in a letter from the New Brunswick college.

"I wasn't surprised at all, to be honest, because I've always maintained that I'm nothing special," she said. "I've always said that [so it's] totally believable that there are other victims out there."

Schollenberg said he is receiving pressure from the Armed Forces to reinstate Hanley's licence.

The military has a severe shortage of psychiatrists, and officials have said they need Hanley to treat troops returning from combat in Afghanistan.

Officials with the Armed Forces and the Newfoundland and Labrador College of Physicians and Surgeons have not been available for comment.