AN OSTEOPATH from Anglesey has been removed from the list where he was named alongside others in the profession after he was given a six month suspended prison sentence.
The General Osteopathic Council’s Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) found Michael Hammond had been convicted of a criminal offence that was materially relevant to his fitness to practise and that the appropriate sanction would be to remove Mr Hammond’s name from the Register of osteopaths.
Mr Hammond was convicted at Caernarfon Crown Court on July 17 2017 and given a six-month suspended prison sentence for an offence of voyeurism.
Mr Hammond had filmed a sexual encounter with a female victim in his treatment room using a concealed camera without the victim’s consent.
The PCC, chaired by Alastair Cannon, found at its hearing on May 21 2019, that the criminal offence was materially relevant to Mr Hammond’s fitness to practise osteopathy.
In making its finding, the PCC took into account that the conviction was for a sexual offence, it had taken place in a treatment room at an osteopathic practice, and involved a victim who had at one time been a patient of Mr Hammond’s.
In reaching its decision, the PCC observed that ‘membership of the osteopathic profession is a privilege which, among other things, accords members a trusted status in the eyes of the public. Mr Hammond’s conviction and the behaviour that led to it are particularly corrosive to that trust’.
The PCC considered that the registrant’s conviction represented the clearest possible departure from professional standards and was fundamentally incompatible with his continued registration.
Mr Hammond has 28 days to appeal against the PCC’s decision.
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