Amine El-Bacha
Introduction
On 12 September 2024, a Conduct and Competence Committee panel of the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) struck Amine El Bacha, a Lebanese-born physiotherapist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council as PH67903, off the HCPC register. The final hearing, held virtually by video conference on 11–12 September 2024, followed his conviction at Harrow Crown Court on 30 June 2023 of three sexual assaults on a service user during the course of physiotherapy treatment, for which he was sentenced on 5 September 2023 to three years’ imprisonment, placement on the Sexual Offenders’ Register indefinitely, and an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order. El-Bacha did not attend the hearing — a prison officer went to collect him from his wing and was told he had declined — and the panel decided it was fair and in the interests of justice to proceed in his absence.
Background Information
El-Bacha was registered with the HCPC as a physiotherapist under number PH67903. On 24 and 28 October 2018 a service user, referred to in the determination as Service User A (SUA), attended him for physiotherapy treatment for whiplash; she was sexually assaulted at both appointments, three times in total.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convictions, not allegations. The findings in this section rest on criminal convictions recorded by Harrow Crown Court after a trial by jury — not on untested allegations. Under Rule 10(1)(d) of the HCPC (Conduct and Competence Committee) (Procedure) Rules 2003, a certified certificate of conviction is admissible as proof of the conviction and of the findings of fact on which it was based; the panel had two certified Certificates of Conviction (dated 30 June 2023 and 19 October 2023) and a transcript of the sentencing remarks, and found particulars 1 and 2 of the allegation proved on that basis.
At the first appointment on 24 October 2018, El-Bacha touched SUA’s breast area: while massaging her, his hands kept moving down onto her breast, which was not part of the treatment she required. At the second appointment on 28 October 2018, he touched her breast again, having moved from her legs upwards towards her crotch; he had her lie on her back and started massaging her breasts, got her to undo her bra, and, while massaging her legs, brushed his hands up towards her legs with his fingers brushing her vagina area through her trousers.
El-Bacha was convicted of sexual assault on three counts at Harrow Crown Court on 30 June 2023, following a trial by jury. On 5 September 2023 he was sentenced to a total of three years’ imprisonment, placed on the Sexual Offenders’ Register indefinitely, and made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order until further order under section 103A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. (The allegation as drafted had cited the Sexual Offences Act “2023”; the panel permitted the HCPC’s amendment to 2003 at the hearing as a typographical correction.) In the sentencing remarks, the judge described the “very serious nature of the offences” and summarised SUA’s victim impact statement: she had “suffered a great deal of mental anxiety”, had not been able to complete any physiotherapy sessions for the whiplash she had originally sought treatment for, experienced panic when in a private healthcare situation with a male practitioner, and was “even scared when walking home from her car to her house at night”. The pre-sentence report prepared by the Probation Service said that “he used the guise of his profession to sexually assault the victim on a number of occasions”, that he had portrayed his behaviour as “slightly misunderstandings and even incorrect perceptions on behalf of the victim”, and that in the officer’s view “his behaviour was predatory in nature, driven by a desire for sexual conduct”.
The panel found his fitness to practise currently impaired on both the personal and public components. It noted that he remained in complete denial: in an email to the HCPC dated 9 September 2024 he wrote, “While I respect the court’s decision, I continue to assert my innocence and believe I was wrongfully convicted”. The panel found no evidence of insight or remediation and assessed the risk of repetition as high, concluding that he had caused SUA actual physical and emotional harm, had breached fundamental tenets of the HCPC’s Standards of proficiency for Physiotherapists — in particular Standard 2 (“be able to practise within the legal and ethical boundaries of their profession”) and Standard 2.2 (“understand the need to act in the best interests of service users at all times”) — and that his criminal behaviour “struck at the heart of the fundamental purpose of a physiotherapist’s role”, exploiting SUA’s vulnerability in a position of trust.
On sanction, the panel identified aggravating factors of abuse of a position of trust, a level of planning and premeditation (as stated by the sentencing judge), “predatory” behaviour (as described by the probation officer), absence of insight, absence of remorse, and the emotional harm caused to SUA. It was unable to identify any mitigating factors: there were no testimonials or references, and no reflection on the impact on SUA or on public confidence. Ranging through the available sanctions, it ruled out no action, a caution order, a conditions of practice order and a suspension order in turn, noting the HCPC Sanctions Policy provision that a panel “should normally regard it as incompatible with the HCPC’s obligation to protect the public to allow a registrant to remain in or return to unrestricted practice while they are on the sex offenders’ database”. Striking off was, in the panel’s view, the only sufficient and proportionate outcome, and it directed the Registrar to strike El Bacha’s name from the Register.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The published record is confined to the criminal and regulatory consequences rather than press coverage. On the criminal side, El-Bacha was imprisoned for three years, will remain on licence until the conclusion of three years from the beginning of his sentence, must remain on the Sexual Offenders’ Register for life, and is subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order which — as the sentencing judge set out — prohibits him from carrying out or participating in any therapeutic, holistic or medical treatment of any nature, paid or otherwise, unless (a) any employer, manager or voluntary service provider is notified of his relevant previous convictions and (b) if providing services to any female, a chaperone is present for the entirety of the session including any initial consultation and follow-ups (no chaperone being required where the recipient is male), and prohibits him from carrying out any such treatment from his home address. On the regulatory side, the HCPTS hearing history shows he had been kept under interim suspension through ten reviews between 10 September 2021 and 15 May 2024 while the criminal proceedings took their course, before the final hearing ended in his striking off. MedicWatch, an independent record of UK healthcare regulators’ decisions, added the case as “Erasure (struck off the register)”, publishing on 12 September 2024 with data last checked on 23 September 2026.
Current Status
El-Bacha is struck off the HCPC register: the panel’s Striking Off Order was decided on 12 September 2024, with the order not taking effect until the 28-day appeal window (under Article 29(10) of the Health Professions Order 2001) had expired or any appeal was disposed of. To cover that period the panel made an 18-month Interim Suspension Order under Article 31(2), finding it necessary for public protection and in the wider public interest; the determination does not record any appeal being brought. MedicWatch records the outcome as erasure — struck off the register — and directs readers to the official HCPC register for his current registration status.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The striking-off ended El-Bacha’s ability to work as a physiotherapist in the UK unless any future restoration application succeeded, and the panel regarded his conduct as fundamentally incompatible with continued registration. Even independently of registration, the criminal sentence bars him from therapeutic, holistic or medical work of any kind save under the chaperone and notification conditions of the Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and places him on the Sexual Offenders’ Register for life. He remained in custody at the time of the hearing, with release on licence to follow, and maintained in his submissions that he was wrongfully convicted; the panel found this absence of insight and acceptance central to its conclusion that no lesser sanction would protect the public.