Benjamin Shepherd

Introduction

Benjamin Shepherd is a paramedic who was suspended from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register for twelve months in July 2026, after a conduct panel found serious misconduct including showing explicit photographs of himself to junior colleagues without their consent and a course of inappropriate comments, some sexual in nature, directed at colleagues, a patient’s wife and a carer. He is not the same person as Christopher Shepherd or Zoe Shepherd, whose cases appear separately on this site and are unrelated. The panel did not find sexual motivation proved, treated the offensive-gesture allegation as falling short of serious misconduct, and considered striking off disproportionate. The decision appears on MedicWatch and on the official HCPTS hearings site, and he is listed among suspended practitioners on MedicWatch’s suspensions list.

Background Information

Shepherd worked as a paramedic for an NHS ambulance service trust, based at Gainsborough ambulance station, a close-knit station with no resident managers, who were based at Lincoln. The conduct spanned roughly May 2020 to October 2021, during the Covid pandemic, which the panel accepted as context affecting frontline ambulance staff. Witnesses described a station culture of banter and what one called dark humour; Shepherd’s defence characterised the allegations as gossip and collusion between colleagues, which the panel rejected. An interim suspension order had been in place since November 2024 and was confirmed at a review in March 2026, before the reconvened final hearing in July 2026.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Suspended for explicit photographs and sexualised comments; sexual motivation not found. The panel found the conduct sexual in nature where the photographs and key comments were concerned, but was not satisfied that any of it was done in pursuit of sexual gratification or a sexual relationship.

The proved conduct began in mid-2020, when Shepherd showed a photograph of himself in which part of his genitals was visible to a younger, junior, female colleague at work without her consent. In November 2020 he showed a photograph of his genitals to another junior female colleague while she was at work with a service user present. The panel found both incidents sexual in nature, with no consent and no clinical or other justification. He also repeatedly told a colleague that he had “not had a XXXX XXX for 7 years”, or words to that effect, which the panel found proved.

In September 2021, while tending to a terminally ill service user who was barely able to speak and used a wheelchair, Shepherd commented in front of a third crew member that the man’s wife “takes love honey”, was “a goer”, and that he bet she was “getting all the rugby players over” once her husband was gone. The panel found these phrases were sexual innuendo suggesting the wife was highly sexed, made with no work-related or clinical justification. The same week he raised his middle finger at a service user and told that service user’s carer he wanted to take her “into the toilet for a date” or give her “a good time”. The gesture and the remark were found proved, but the panel judged them inappropriate and unprofessional rather than serious professional misconduct, and found the remark was not sexually motivated because it was made openly in a small flat with other professionals present.

At the reconvened final hearing, held from 20 to 23 July 2026, the panel found the photograph particulars and parts of the comments proved, discontinued the allegations concerning one colleague, and removed references to another for want of evidence. It found impairment on both personal and public grounds, with developing but incomplete insight and remediation, and no clinical competence concerns. Striking off was considered disproportionate given his engagement, apology, some remediation, the absence of any sexual touching, and the absence of any finding of sexual motivation.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel treated the showing of explicit images to junior colleagues at work as a serious abuse of seniority that could not be dealt with by caution or conditions, given the breaches of trust involving vulnerable service users and junior colleagues, the pattern of behaviour repeated over more than a year, and the harm caused to colleagues and the potential harm to service users. Against that it weighed his apology, his developing insight and the remediation he had begun. The outcome is recorded on the HCPTS site and on MedicWatch, which carries him on its suspensions list; the case has been part of the public register since the interim order stage in 2024.

Current Status

On 23 July 2026 the panel imposed a twelve-month suspension from the order’s operative date, with a separate interim suspension of up to eighteen months covering the appeal period before the substantive order takes effect. A future reviewing panel will look for completed remediation: insight that addresses the impact on the colleagues involved, evidence of boundary training, and reflection that goes beyond the explanation of station banter culture that the panel heard and did not accept as justification. He is suspended from HCPC-registered paramedic practice for the term of the order.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Shepherd has not practised as a registered paramedic since the interim suspension was imposed in late 2024, and the twelve-month substantive order extends that exclusion. The findings of sexual-in-nature conduct towards junior colleagues, even without a sexual-motivation finding, are a serious mark on a paramedic’s record and will follow him on public registers indefinitely. The panel’s decision not to strike him off leaves a route back to practice, but the burden at any review sits on him to show that the insight described as developing has become complete and that repetition is unlikely.

Sources

• “Paramedic suspended for 12 months over photographs and inappropriate comments, MedicWatch” source
• “Benjamin Shepherd — Interim restrictions imposed · 6 March 2026, MedicWatch” source
• “Benjamin Shepherd, HCPTS hearings” source
• “Benjamin Shepherd — interim order review, HCPTS hearings” source
• “Suspensions, MedicWatch” source