Nursing and Midwifery Council determination — substantive hearing

NMC panel suspends nurse Sean McMullan over sexually motivated messages and dishonesty findings

A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel has suspended Northern Ireland nurse Sean Fergus McMullan for 12 months after finding he sent sexually motivated Grindr messages to a patient he had treated and dishonestly denied sending them during his employer's disciplinary proceedings.

MedicWatch editorial · Published 27 May 2026 · Updated 11 July 2026

Suspension (suspended from practice) — 1 year

Added to MedicWatch: 11 July 2026Report a correction

What does “suspended from practice” mean?

A suspension is a fixed-term pause on the right to practise. The practitioner cannot work in the regulated profession during the suspension. At the end of the period the suspension may be extended, replaced with another sanction, or lifted on review.

Concerning Sean Fergus McMullan, nurse (Nursing and Midwifery Council 13I1866S).

Decision date: 27 May 2026 · Hearing started 20 October 2025 and ended 27 May 2026

In plain English

The NMC's Fitness to Practise Committee found that Sean Fergus McMullan, an adult nurse from Mid and East Antrim, breached professional boundaries by sending sexually motivated messages to a patient on Grindr, failed to disclose a conflict of interest when triaging him, and dishonestly told his employer's investigation that the patient or someone else had sent the messages. The panel suspended him for 12 months, with an 18-month interim suspension covering the appeal period.

Charges

That being a registered nurse he: (1) between 24 October 2020 and April 2021 breached professional boundaries with Patient A by engaging in communication and sending messages on Grindr, including "Hope you've managed to pee since I took that catheter out", "Thought you were getting a little excited" and "Haha wee semi going on" or words to that effect; (2) that this conduct was sexually motivated in pursuit of sexual gratification and/or a future sexual relationship; (3) failed to disclose a conflict of interest in respect of Patient A; (4) during a Trust investigation meeting on 10 August 2021 and a disciplinary appeal hearing on 2 March 2022, incorrectly stated the messages had been sent by Patient A and/or someone else; and (5) that this conduct was dishonest, knowing the information was false and intending to mislead staff members.

Findings

The panel found all charges proved: charge 1a in relation to the October 2020 messages alone, and charge 3 only in relation to Patient A's attendance in April 2021, when he was in a very vulnerable state and Mr McMullan was responsible for triaging him. The panel found the facts amounted to misconduct breaching the Code's requirements on honesty, professional boundaries and treatment of vulnerable people, and that his fitness to practise was impaired on public protection and public interest grounds, citing limited insight and insufficient remediation. It determined the dishonesty was at the lower end of the spectrum and there was no evidence of predatory behaviour, and imposed a 12-month suspension order with an 18-month interim suspension order to cover the appeal period.

Mitigating factors

Although his conduct in charge 1 was in pursuit of sexual gratification, he did not intend or expect that Patient A would feel uncomfortable, as both were users of Grindr and had previously had a date; the failure to disclose a conflict of interest was a decision taken in the moment, as he was not expecting to see Patient A in the hospital; the dishonesty came after he was pressed by the interviewer to provide an explanation as to who could have sent the messages.

Aggravating factors

Limited insight into his misconduct; conduct which put Patient A at risk of suffering harm, although the panel concluded this was not a premeditated intent to cause harm but a set of unwise decisions that led to the potential harm to the patient.

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.

Spot something incorrect?

If a fact on this page is wrong, or you believe the page should not be published, please submit a correction or takedown request.