Violent pharmacist struck off
Samuel Edwin Ashby, who was jailed for 14 months for attacking a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s staff during a Statutory Committee hearing, has been ordered to be struck off the Register of Pharmacists for a second time using the Society’s modernised disciplinary procedures.
This step was taken because, although he has been subject to an interim
suspension order since 18 April 2007, his legal appeal against the original
decision, which prompted
the attack on 25 October 2006, meant that he
would have been able to continue practising if the appeal were to succeed
(PJ, 28 October 2006, p503).
Mr Ashby, of Hughenden Court, Mountpleasant Road, Hastings, arrived late
for the Disciplinary Committee hearing on 18 February and, shouting profanities,
abused the committee, telling its members to shut up, adding: “I’ve
never had to deal with such ignorant fools in my life.”
Asked whether he wanted to say anything about the assault that had brought
him before the committee and if he regretted the action, Mr Ashby blamed
the chairman of the previous hearing, Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC, saying: “After
the abuse I had to put up with? You expect pharmacists to put up with
that abuse?”
Mr Ashby also criticised the standards in pharmacies in the UK. “I
have never had to work in such conditions in my life.” Pharmacy
staff, he said, were “pillaging, raping and abusing” standards.
Ordering Mr Ashby to be struck off for a second time, Disciplinary Committee
chairman John Burrow said that no amount of stress justified an attack
such as the one he launched at the 25 October 2006 hearing.
He said that Mr Ashby had brought the weapon he used to the hearing in
anticipation of an attack and had later told a
psychiatrist he wished he had hit his victim harder.
“It was a vulnerable victim who was subjected to an unprovoked
and sustained attack — a wholly unexpected attack. During this
hearing [Mr Ashby] was verbally aggressive and abusive and displayed
a degree of continuing
anger. He presents a continuing risk to the public of serious physical
harm,” said Mr Burrow.
The Committee also ordered that Mr Ashby’s interim suspension order
be replaced by a fresh suspension order until the striking-off order
takes effect.
He has 28 days in which to appeal against being struck off.
Society p258
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