Doc's bogus massages subsidised his church

In a single year Dr Anthony Walton, who also ran the Grace Christian Fellowship Church in The Broadway, Wickford, made £40,000 from sports massage, pumping the hefty sum into the church's charity fund.

In total, the charity raised about £100,000 a year, some of which went to fund trips to the USA, though church accounts do not make clear who travelled there.

A large sum also paid salaries to Walton, his wife Letesia and son Owen, who helped run the church.

Church accounts, held by the Charity Commission, were signed off by former trustee and church secretary Julian Stuart, of The Dell, Wickford, a Chelmsford-based police sergeant.

They showed in 2003, £31,245 of the charity's £95,914 income came from "sports donations".

In 2004, sports donations accounted for £40,768 of the £99,933 total and the following year, for £35,372 of the £111,791 total.

The rest of the money came from fundraising events, book sales and donations.

Walton, 59, ran a private sports massage clinic in a backroom at the church, even though he had no physiotherapy qualifications.

The General Medical Council, which struck him off last Friday, was told patients were referred from his NHS surgery for unnecessary massage treatments.

With most patients paying a few hundred pounds each the sums recorded on the account suggest a large number of massages may have taken place.

The accounts also reveal substantial amounts of the money came back to the Walton family as earnings for running the church.

In the final accounts submitted in 2005, Walton, son Owen and wife, Letesia, between them got more than £48,000 in combined salaries and expenses.

Walton, drew £8,700 as associate pastor, Owen Walton £14,038 as associate pastor and Mrs Walton a salary of £16,355 and around £9,000 in expenses.

Between 2002 and 2005, £19,529 was paid out by the charity in motoring expenses.

In 2002 and again in 2003, it paid out £3,795 for travel to the American city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

By 2005, the accounts show the charity owed nearly £15,000 to creditors. It is now being wound up.

Walton sold his family bungalow in Mangapp Chase, Burnham, in March this year for £255,000.

He left no forwarding address, and is believed to have moved up north before returning to South Africa.

Mr Stuart, who was named during the GMC hearing as being given unauthorised access to a patient's medical record by Walton, declined to comment, other than to say he had since severed all links with the church and the Walton family.

* Were you a patient of Walton who was offered unusual treatment, or a member of the Grace Christian Fellowship congregation with a story to tell? Call Jon Austin on 01268 469304 or e-mail jon.austin@nqe.com

Walton resigned after NHS ban
DR ANTHONY Walton resigned from his church weeks after the NHS banned him from working for primary care trusts across the country.

From the mid-Nineties, Walton ran Wickford Grace Christian Fellowship, based in The Broadway, Wickford, with his social worker wife, Letesia, son, Owen, and Chelmsford police officer Julian Stuart.

Grace Christian Fellowship was a registered charity and also traded as a limited company.

Dr Walton resigned as a director of the company and as trustee and chief executive of the charity, two months after his NHS ban became public in March 2006.

Concerns about a conflict of interests had been raised with the Charity Commission a year earlier.

Owen Walton - already heavily involved in the church - then took over as chief executive of the charity. The church later hit financial problems and closed.

It failed to file accounts to the Charity Commission in 2006 and 2007 and was removed from commission's register.

Commission spokesman Sarah Whalley said: "Concerns were raised with us regarding possible conflicts of interest in Grace Christian Fellowship in 2005.

"We subsequently looked into these concerns. However, this was not a formal investigation. The charity has now been wound up."

It last annual report filed to the commission in September 2005 stated: "A number of people we had relied on as helpers and volunteers left the charity through the year which resulted in us being able to do less activities."

The report claimed the church needed to move from Wickford because its rent was too high.

For a while, Walton, based the church to a rented room in the Holiday Inn, on Basildon's Festival Leisure Park, but many churchgoers, including former trustee Mr Stuart, left to join Wickford Christian Centre, in Crouch Drive.

Walton qualified as a doctor at Witwatersrand, South Africa, in 1973, but was never a qualified physiotherapist.

He is thought to have continued in private practice in Pitsea Broadway, where he tried to keep the church going with a handful of followers.

The charity was founded in Peterborough in 1996 as the Order of Christian Friends, before changing its name in 2002. Grace Christian Fellowship Ltd is now in liquidation, because of unsettled debts.

Doctor abused patients' trust'
A FORMER patient of Dr Walton's claimed the Wickford GP "abused his trust" by performing clinically unnecessary massages on him.

Terry Baker, 27, from Wickford, was an NHS patient of Walton's at the London Road clinic, who was a key witness in the GMC hearing.

Mr Baker said: "I went to him with anger and temper problems and that was when he suggested the massages."

The hearing heard Walton told him he was at risk of a heart attack or stroke if he did not undergo private treatment at the clinic. He paid £180 for three weeks' treatment.

Mr Baker had no idea the money was going directly to Walton's church.

He added: "It didn't seem quite right, but I was brought up that you trust your doctor.

"He even said he would do it for free if I gave him my watch, but I said no."

At one stage, Walton's colleagues at the NHS clinic asked Mr Baker to meet them, as they were suspicious about his activities. He said: "I stopped the treatment when they told me they were looking into him.

"It was about two years later when I was called to the hearing.

"I went to make sure it could not happen to someone else.

"It was absolutely the right verdict to strike him off.

"A doctor is a respected and trusted position and he totally abused that."

Son has his own ministry'
SINCE Wickford Grace Christian Fellowship folded, one of its leading lights has taken his mission worldwide.

Walton's South African-born son, Owen, has set up Exceeding Faith Ministries International with finance Cindy van Wyk.

The organisation claims an "itinerant mission" and its website says it holds meetings in the UK, the United States and South Africa and has links to some of the USA's biggest TV evangelists, including God Channel regulars Dr Jesse and Cathy Duplantis. Of Owen Walton, the website claims: "He was a senior pastor of a church located in the East of England for a number of years."

It goes on to talk about the group "ministering strongly in the areas of faith, healing, prosperity and love, emphasising the importance of being word-based, holy spirit-filled and love-motivated."

The old Grace Christian Fellowship's keeness on faith healing is evident in the website's claim to firmly believe in the laying-on of hands for healing the sick.

Youth club failed
WALTON once opened a youth club in an effort to stamp out Wickford's yob problems.

However, the club was short-lived, after apparently suffering youth problems of its own.

In 1999, Walton's church opened a meeting place and Mediterranean-style cafe for the elderly.

He later set up an evening youth club on the premises which won the backing of police, Neighbourhood Watch members and Basildon Council.

At the time, Walton told the Echo the youth club could help rid Wickford of its youth problems.

He said: "I tried twice to start youth clubs in Wickford but couldn't find the premises.

"The problem of youths causing trouble is multi-faceted.

"There are different gangs, some of whom don't cause any problems and a few who do.

"The major problem is to bring all the different groups together. At the moment, nobody is doing anything.

"We believe the role of the church in the community is simply to reach people."

The club was short-lived, following problems with unruly youngsters on its opening night.