Dental nurse erased after assaulting another nurse

A dental nurse has been erased from the General Dental Council (GDC) register following convictions for assaulting another dental nurse and a second woman, and failures to disclose criminal matters to the regulator.

The nurse was convicted by court martial in July 2024 of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two offences of assault by beating. The offences took place on 8 and 9 October 2022 and resulted in an 18-month custodial sentence.

According to the public determination, one attack involved a victim who was asleep in bed. The judge advocate described it as a ‘ferocious attack’.

The nurse had also received a simple caution in July 2021 for three offences of assault by beating.

The GDC’s Professional Conduct Committee found that the nurse failed to immediately disclose both the caution and the convictions. It found these failures misleading, but not dishonest.

Leaving the profession

In correspondence sent to the GDC in October 2024, the nurse said they had stopped working in the profession two years earlier and did not intend to re-register. They asked whether their email could be accepted as confirmation that they no longer wished to work as a dental nurse and whether the case could be closed.

The nurse also said they had reflected on their behaviour and begun addressing personal issues that contributed to it. However, the committee said it had received no evidence of the steps taken or reassurance that the behaviour would not recur.

The nurse did not attend and was not represented at the hearing, held between 24 and 26 August 2026. The committee proceeded in their absence after finding that notice had been properly served and no adjournment had been requested.

Although the GDC’s counsel proposed a six-month suspension with a review, the committee concluded that even a 12-month suspension would not adequately protect the public or satisfy the public interest.

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