Judge orders dentist to be struck off
A dentist was ordered to be struck from the dental register with immediate effect last week by a High Court judge.
Mr Justice Newman overturned a decision made by the General Dental Council
that Alexander Fleischmann should be suspended from the register for
12 months.
This is the first time a judge has overriden the decision of a health
regulator and ordered a striking-off at the request of the Council for
Healthcare Regulatory Excellence.
The dentist had been convicted at Middlesex Crown Court in December 2003
of 12 counts of making indecent images of children by downloading pornography
from the internet.
Mr Justice Newman ruled that there was cogent evidence pointing to sexual
deviance and the case for treatment. He said that the GDC had given insufficient
weight to the need to maintain the reputation of the profession and public
confidence in the profession. The suspension decision also failed to
give proper consideration to the need to protect the general public and
was flawed and inadequate, the judge ruled.
Counsel for the CHRE had told the judge: “While future risk to
children could not be assessed with certainty, nonetheless the consequences
of such a risk occurring would be serious indeed.”
Counsel for Mr Fleischmann had told the court that three experts agreed
that he posed a low risk of being a danger to children.
The GDC has accepted the judge’s decision. |
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