14 Jun 2024
Hertfordshire-based Jamie Rushton removed from register after he was jailed for 18 months.
Vet Times
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A vet has been removed from the register after his conviction of sexual assault led to an 18-month jail term.
Jamie Rushton, of Hertfordshire, has been struck off by the RCVS Disciplinary Committee (DC) following a guilty plea, for a sexual assault on 9 December 2022, at Wood Green Crown Court.
He was subsequently sentenced to 18 months in prison, made subject to a restraining order and a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years. He was also ordered to pay £3,000 costs and a £140 victims’ surcharge.
Proceeding in his absence in a hearing on 10 and 11 June, the DC found the facts of the charge were proven by the certificate of conviction and with reference to the judge’s sentencing remarks.
The DC took into account the circumstances of the case, which involved sexual assault of a vulnerable woman who was also a professional colleague and a serious abuse of trust. It said the seriousness was reflected in the custodial sentence.
Vet Neil Slater, chairing the DC and speaking on its behalf, said: “It was evident from the judge’s sentencing remarks that [the victim] had been seriously affected by the knowledge of what had occurred on that evening. That knowledge was bound, in itself, to be very distressing and according to the victim’s impact statement had a long-lasting impact on the victim’s self-esteem, resilience and relationship with others.
Dr Slater continued: “The victim’s level of distress can only have been increased by the knowledge that the respondent had filmed and/or photographed his activity while she was unconscious, and that the images were included on a memory stick, which contained a number of other voyeuristic images.
“The committee was satisfied that the respondent’s behaviour had caused [the victim] significant psychological injury and carried with it a risk of causing such injury.
“The committee was also satisfied that [the victim] was especially vulnerable because of the significant quantity of alcohol that she had consumed. In the circumstances that evolved, she was in the respondent’s care.
“The respondent abused the position of trust and responsibility that he occupied. He was a senior colleague, at a professional conference. Instead of taking appropriate steps to secure the welfare of [the victim], he used the position in which he found himself to engage in predatory sexual misconduct. Furthermore, his behaviour was opportunistic and, as the judge said, ‘clearly driven by [his] sexual desires’.”
The DC found Dr Rushton was unfit to practise and found no mitigating factors, but did take into account he had no previous regulatory findings against him.
The committee also found little evidence Dr Rushton had shown serious insight into the impact of his offending. It found removal from the register was the only proportionate outcome to the case.
The full documentation of the hearing is available on the DC hearings page of the RCVS website.
