Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing
Struck off the register
The regulator’s term: erasure
What does “struck off the register” mean?
Being struck off (the regulator calls this "erasure") removes the practitioner from the register. They are no longer permitted to practise this profession in the UK. Erasure can be reviewed after a minimum of five years, but is otherwise indefinite.
Concerning Sunil Mushtaq, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 21F0086O).
Decision date: 18 March 2026 · Hearing started 18 March 2026
In plain English
The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee imposed a striking-off order on Sunil Mushtaq, a registered adult nurse from Exeter, on 18 March 2026. The panel found his fitness to practise impaired by reason of his March 2025 conviction at Exeter Crown Court for sexual assault upon a female, committed in October 2022 while he was the agency nurse caring for the patient in the emergency department. He received an 18-month suspended prison sentence and is on the Sex Offenders' Register for ten years. The case was concluded by Consensual Panel Determination. An interim suspension order of 18 months was imposed pending appeal.
Charges
That, as a Registered Nurse, Mr Mushtaq was convicted at Exeter Crown Court on 21 March 2025 of Sexual Assault upon a Female. The agreed facts before the panel set out that, while working as an agency nurse in the Emergency Department of the Royal Devon University Hospital on 10 October 2022, he repeatedly entered a patient's cubicle when her partner was not present and sexually assaulted her while purporting to attend to her cannula. He was sentenced on 12 May 2025 to 18 months' imprisonment suspended for 18 months, with 180 hours of unpaid work and 30 rehabilitation activity days, and is subject to the Sex Offenders' Register for ten years and barring by the DBS. The case was disposed of by Consensual Panel Determination, with full admissions to the charge.
Findings
The panel accepted the Consensual Panel Determination agreed between Mr Mushtaq and the NMC and found his fitness to practise impaired by reason of his conviction. The panel agreed with the parties that the conviction concerned sexual misconduct against a patient who he was caring for and was at the higher end of the spectrum of seriousness, and that a striking-off order was the only appropriate and proportionate sanction to protect the public, maintain public confidence in the profession, and uphold professional standards.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Aggravating factors
Abuse of a position of trust in that Mr Mushtaq was providing care to a patient at the time. Psychological and emotional harm caused to the patient. Continuing nature of the assault in that Mr Mushtaq repeatedly entered the patient's cubicle to sexually assault her. Premeditated behaviour in that Mr Mushtaq committed the offence when the patient's partner was not present. Mr Mushtaq has to comply with the requirements of the sex offenders' register for a period of ten years.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Nursing and Midwifery Council determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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