Health and Care Professions Council determination — substantive hearing
HCPTS panel strikes off Lee Turner over sexually motivated conduct
An HCPTS panel struck operating department practitioner Lee Turner off after finding repeated sexually motivated comments and physical contact towards colleagues amounted to misconduct.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 18 November 2025 · Updated 23 September 2026
Erasure (struck off the register)
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The regulator directed removal from the register in this decision. The decision explains when the direction takes effect and any appeal provisions. Check the official register for the practitioner's current registration status.
Concerning Lee Turner, operating department practitioner (Health and Care Professions Council ODP33415).
Decision date: 18 November 2025 · Hearing started 10 November 2025 and ended 18 November 2025
In plain English
The HCPTS panel found that operating department practitioner Lee Turner repeatedly made sexually motivated comments and physical contact towards colleagues, including pinning one colleague to an operating table. It found misconduct and current impairment, with very limited insight and a continuing risk of repetition. The panel struck him off and imposed an interim suspension for the appeal period.
Charges
Mr Turner was alleged to have made sexual comments to two colleagues, thrust his hips into one colleague on several occasions, pinned her face down on an operating table and thrust his crotch into her, and put his arm around the other colleague. The conduct was alleged to be sexually motivated and to amount to misconduct.
Findings
The panel found all the alleged conduct proved. It found every act except placing an arm around a colleague was sexually motivated, and that those sexually motivated acts amounted to misconduct. It found current impairment on personal and public components, with very limited insight and a continuing risk of repetition, and concluded that no sanction short of striking off was sufficient.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Aggravating factors
The issues involving physical contact with Colleague A were particularly serious; Colleague A was clearly distressed by the incident on 21 December 2020; behaviour of this type has the potential to have wider consequences for effective team working and patient care.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Health and Care Professions Council determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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