The secret son of royal confidant and playboy Lord Glenconner has been struck off as a psychotherapist after he had a sexual relationship with a vulnerable client.

Joshua Bowler, 70, was found guilty of misconduct after kissing and fondling the woman during therapy sessions in the attic room of his London home.

A complaint hearing for the UK Council for Psychotherapy was told the sessions, which were held on Mondays, would end with the woman stripping down to her underwear as part of a ‘performance’ for Mr Bowler.

In a series of damning findings, an adjudication panel ruled that the father-of-four ‘abused his position of trust’ and acted ‘in a voyeuristic and predatory manner’.

Mr Bowler is the illegitimate son of Lord Glenconner, a close friend of Princess Margaret who turned the Caribbean island of Mustique into a luxury hideaway.

The disgraced therapist’s mother was Henrietta Moraes, a muse to artists Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon in the 1950s and 1960s. She had a fling with Colin Tennant – who became the 3rd Baron Glenconner in 1983 – after they met at a New Year’s party in 1954.

Lord Glenconner had no idea he was Mr Bowler’s father until DNA test results provided proof at the end of 2009. The peer, who lived in Saint Lucia, died aged 83 in August 2010 and his son helped to carry the coffin at his funeral.

Mr Bowler specialised in treating victims of trauma and saw the woman involved in the misconduct complaint between 2008 and 2019.

The woman – named only as ‘Client A’ – suffered a mental health crisis after losing her job and had a problem ‘observing boundaries’.

After telling Mr Bowler she loved him, the therapist stated that although they could not have a relationship in the ‘real world’ it was ‘OK in the therapy room’.

She described how during their sessions, which were deliberately held at the end of the day so there would be no interruptions, she would go into his bathroom and change into underwear, suspenders and high heels. On one occasion she arrived in a ball gown.

‘She’s described on occasion sitting on [Mr Bowler’s] knee and another with [him] lying down and her lying on top of him,’ the panel’s findings state.

The woman claimed he touched her breasts ‘perhaps five times’ and on one occasion put his hand between her legs, which he denied. It was also alleged that he told the woman she was ‘the most extreme case of [a] virgin and whore split’ that he had encountered.

Mr Bowler did not attend a complaint hearing. The panel upheld the allegations after treating them as if they had all been denied.

The panel ruled that Mr Bowler ‘took advantage of her, in his own interests over a lengthy period of time’ and that ‘Client A spoke of the longevity of the harm and the pervasive shame he caused her’.

They added: ‘He violated her bodily integrity and left her unable to engage in relationships for many years. It is only now after years of properly conducted therapy that she has had the strength to complain.’

Mr Bowler did not respond to a request for comment. He told the panel he has been visiting monasteries in Egypt and South Africa for two years and does not intend to return to England due to the ‘crumbling Victorian corruption’.