Emmanuel Hakem
Introduction
Dr Emmanuel Hakem is a Sudan-born doctor who trained in obstetrics and gynaecology and who was erased from the General Medical Council (GMC) register on 17 October 2025, after a Medical Practitioners Tribunal found his fitness to practise impaired by reason of his conviction for exposure. The conviction arose from an incident at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Bristol, where tribunal papers state that he exposed his genitals to a 16-year-old female member of staff as she handed him his meal. In September 2024, following a trial at Bristol Crown Court, he was found guilty of exposure, sentenced to a community order and placed on the sex offenders register. The tribunal concluded that his behaviour was “fundamentally incompatible with continued registration” and directed that his name be erased.
Background Information
Hakem graduated from the National Ribat University in Sudan in 2013 and completed an internship there. He moved to Ireland in 2015 and worked continuously in obstetrics and gynaecology at major Irish centres until 2022, teaching numerous medical students and publishing multiple articles in peer-reviewed journals. In October 2022 he entered the UK national training programme in obstetrics and gynaecology, starting as an ST3 at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, a post he held from October 2022 to October 2023.
The determination’s background records the first formal response to the criminal case: “Following his arrest for the offence of exposure, in October 2022 Dr Hakem was required by the Trust to have a chaperone for each of his patient encounters” — and Somerset Live reports that after the arrest he was still allowed to see patients, but only with a chaperone. The published sources give no exact date for the drive-thru incident itself; Somerset Live states only that Hakem was training at Torbay and South Devon “at the time of the act”. After passing his first Annual Review of Competency Progression he became an ST5, working towards his Certificate of Completion of Training in the hope of becoming a consultant. He moved from Torbay Hospital to the Royal Cornwall Hospital around October 2023, but never began clinical work there: he was charged by the police and subsequently excluded from clinical practice by the Trust.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. Hakem’s conviction for exposure is a matter of court record, and the tribunal’s findings rest on it. He told the tribunal he maintained he was not guilty of the offence while acknowledging the tribunal must take his conviction as conclusive evidence.
Tribunal papers state that Hakem drove up to the drive-thru window at a Bristol branch of McDonald’s, unzipped his trousers and revealed his genitals to the teenage staff member as she handed him his meal. He then drove away with one hand on his lap and the other on the steering wheel. The worker was a 16-year-old girl who was left horrified; the “distressed” teenager reported the incident to a manager immediately, and Hakem was subsequently arrested.
In September 2024, following a trial at Bristol Crown Court, he was found guilty of exposure. He was sentenced to a community order and placed on the sex offenders register. Hakem denied any wrongdoing, claiming he did not act “in a sexual manner” but was “adjusting himself” with his underwear on. Speaking to the tribunal, he said he “recognised the distress caused to the female employee and expressed an understanding of the impact of the incident on her”, but “maintained that he was not guilty of the offence” while acknowledging that the tribunal must take his conviction as “conclusive evidence”.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Jonathan Lally, representing the GMC, told the tribunal that the conviction was “reprehensible” and “prejudiced the reputation of the medical profession”. He said: “The conviction involved a sexual offence committed in a public place, against a young female working in a public-facing role, at her place of work.” These aggravating features, he said, heighten the seriousness of the case, “particularly given that Dr Hakem’s clinical work lies in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, where he routinely examines female patients and is entrusted with their most intimate care”.
Laura Stephenson, representing Hakem, said he “fully understood the gravity of the conviction and the seriousness” of it. In mitigation she pointed to his “unblemished professional history, with no prior criminal or regulatory concerns in England or Ireland”, and to testimonials from colleagues and supervisors attesting to his “professionalism, empathy, and respect for others” and showing the behaviour to have been “wholly out of character”. “Years have passed since the incident without any recurrence or cause for concern,” she said. “His sentence has been completed in full, and he complied with all requirements of the Probation Service.”
The tribunal concluded that the behaviour “caused distress and had the potential to cause psychological harm to a 16-year-old girl”, and considered “that female patients, including victims of rape or sexual assault, would understandably be reluctant to be treated by a doctor who is subject to the Sex Offenders Register”. Erasing his name, it concluded, would “send a clear signal to the public and the profession” that his behaviour is “fundamentally incompatible with continued registration”.
Current Status
Hakem was struck off the medical register on 17 October 2025, the decision date of a substantive hearing that sat from 15 to 17 October 2025 and recorded the decision on impairment as impaired. He no longer holds his medical licence and is no longer permitted to practise medicine in the United Kingdom. His criminal sentence was completed in full, according to the mitigation put before the tribunal, and erasure removes him from the GMC register entirely.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The erasure ends the career of a doctor who, until his arrest, had an unblemished professional history in England and Ireland and appeared on track to become a consultant: he had taught medical students, published in peer-reviewed journals and progressed to the ST5 grade before his exclusion from clinical practice prevented him ever taking up the post at the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
The tribunal’s reasoning turned on his specialty: a conviction for a sexual offence, it found, would undermine the confidence of the female patients whose most intimate care obstetricians and gynaecologists are entrusted with, including those who have survived rape or sexual assault. Whatever his continued denial of guilt, the conviction itself carried the case — and it cost him the medical registration he had spent more than a decade building.