John Andrew Charters

Introduction

John Andrew Charters is a former registered nurse from Inverness, Scotland, who held registration as both a mental health nurse and an adult nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). In April 2024 he was convicted at Inverness Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court of two assaults on residents of separate care homes committed years apart. In May 2026, an NMC Fitness to Practise Committee found his fitness to practise impaired by reason of those convictions, concluded that a striking-off order was the only sufficient sanction, and directed that he be struck off the register.

Background Information

Charters was a registered nurse on the NMC register under number 98I0051S, qualified in both mental health and adult nursing. His professional work included caring for elderly and vulnerable residents in care homes — the setting for both of the assaults that later came before the courts. The first of the two incidents took place on 1 February 2014 at a care home in Grantown on Spey, when Charters assaulted Resident B and struck her on the body. The second occurred on 2 December 2022 at a care home in Maryburgh, where he assaulted Resident A and repeatedly pulled him on the body, causing injury. The decade separating the two incidents became central to the regulator’s later assessment: rather than treating them as an isolated lapse, the panel viewed them as a pattern of behaviour over a period of time. The determination also notes previous regulatory and disciplinary findings as an aggravating factor in the case.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The criminal facts in this case are court-adjudicated: on 22 April 2024, at Inverness Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, John Andrew Charters was convicted of two charges of assault — one concerning Resident A on 2 December 2022 at Maryburgh and one concerning Resident B on 1 February 2014 at Grantown on Spey. Those convictions, and the sentence imposed by the criminal courts, are established facts. By contrast, the conclusions that his fitness to practise is currently impaired, that patients were put at risk of harm, that he lacks insight, and that there is a risk of repetition are civil-standard findings made by the NMC’s Fitness to Practise Committee, not criminal adjudications. The committee found the facts proved on the strength of a certificate of conviction under Rule 31(2) and (3) of the NMC Rules — no re-hearing of the criminal evidence took place.

The matter reached the NMC’s Fitness to Practise Committee at a substantive hearing that opened on 26 May 2026 and closed the following day. The charge alleged that Charters, a registered nurse, had been convicted on 22 April 2024 of two charges: that on 2 December 2022 at a care home in Maryburgh he assaulted Resident A and did repeatedly pull him on the body to his injury; and that on 1 February 2014 at a care home in Grantown on Spey he assaulted Resident B and did strike her on the body. His fitness to practise was alleged to be impaired by reason of his conviction. Having been provided with a copy of the certificate of conviction, the panel found the facts proved in accordance with Rule 31(2) and (3). It went on to find that limbs a to c of the Grant test were engaged, that patients were put at risk of harm and caused physical and emotional harm, and that Mr Charters lacked sufficient insight into his convictions, with a risk of repetition. The panel found his fitness to practise currently impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The determination records the aggravating factors the panel identified: serious assaults on two vulnerable residents from two different care homes, indicating a pattern of behaviour over a period of time rather than a single lapse of judgement; incidents directly linked to his clinical practice, with the nature of the charges indicating an attitudinal concern not easily remediable; previous regulatory and disciplinary findings; a failure to demonstrate any insight into the impact of his behaviour on both residents, their families and the wider nursing profession; and the impact of his behaviour on the residents, their families and his colleagues. When the panel considered whether there were any mitigating features in the case, it determined there were none. On sanction, the panel concluded that a striking-off order was the only sanction sufficient to protect the public interest, and it imposed an interim suspension order for 18 months to cover the appeal period.

Current Status

Charters was struck off the NMC register, the regulator’s term being erasure, with effect from the committee’s decision on 27 May 2026. While the case is within the appeal period he is subject to an 18-month interim suspension order. Erasure removes a practitioner from the register so that they are no longer permitted to practise the profession in the UK; it can be reviewed after a minimum of five years but is otherwise indefinite. Unless a review or appeal were to change the outcome, Charters cannot work as a nurse in the United Kingdom.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The striking-off order ended Charters’ registration as a mental health and adult nurse and barred him from practising that profession in the UK, closing a career that had spanned care home work for vulnerable elderly residents. The panel’s findings went beyond the convictions themselves: it concluded that he lacked sufficient insight into them and posed a risk of repetition, and that the assaults had caused residents physical and emotional harm as well as affecting their families, his colleagues and confidence in the wider nursing profession. The absence of any mitigating features, combined with previous regulatory and disciplinary findings, left the panel with what it described as no sanction short of erasure that was sufficient to protect the public interest.

Sources

• MedicWatch, “John Andrew Charters — Struck off the register · 27 May 2026”, 27 May 2026.source