Hong Kong - A Hong Kong psychiatrist has been struck off the medical register for having sex with a patient he first seduced by giving her drugs to make her powerless, a news report said Saturday. Dr Win Yu, 59, began having sex with the woman when she was 27 and came to him for treatment after attempting suicide following a failed marriage.

The Hong Kong Medical Council was told he had sex with her first in 1997, breaking down her initial resistance by giving her drugs that "rendered her weak and powerless," the South China Morning Post reported.

Win continued having sex with the woman over the next nine years but was discovered when the woman complained to his hospital about his behaviour and claimed he had accessed her medical records.

At a Medical Council hearing Friday, Win was struck off the medical register indefinitely with a recommendation he should not practice again for at least 10 years.

Council chairwoman Felice Mak said Win's offences while he was working at Hong Kong's United Christian Hospital were at the "high end of gravity," the newspaper said.

"The fact that the offence was committed on a particularly vulnerable psychiatric patient further aggravates the offence," Mak was quoted as saying.