Lukasz Osipowicz
Introduction
Lukasz Osipowicz is a physiotherapist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council working as a massage therapist at the Alton Towers Resort Spa when, on 4 February 2023, he touched a female client’s breasts and nipples during a massage. In November 2025 a Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service panel found the touching was without her consent, had no clinical justification and was sexually motivated. It found misconduct and current impairment on both the personal and public components, and suspended him for 12 months — the maximum period available.
Background Information
Osipowicz was employed at the resort spa as a massage therapist rather than as a physiotherapist, but the panel noted the roles are closely aligned and massage is a core physiotherapy skill. The client, identified in the proceedings as Service User A, was having a full body massage booked by her friend as a present; the friend’s mother also attended. After she reported what had happened, the spa escalated the matter and police arrested Osipowicz, who self-referred to the HCPC in May 2023 after being charged with a sexual offence.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Suspended for sexually motivated touching of a client. A HCPTS panel found that physiotherapist Lukasz Osipowicz touched Service User A’s breasts and nipples without consent during a massage at the Alton Towers Resort Spa and that the touching was sexually motivated for his own sexual gratification. He was suspended from the HCPC register for 12 months on 14 November 2025.
According to the panel’s findings, Service User A lay on the treatment bed with a towel covering her. After she turned onto her back, Osipowicz massaged around and then directly on top of her breasts and nipples from underneath the towel — she described a “sweeping, circular motion with both hands” repeated three consecutive times. On the third occasion she asked him to stop, saying “Can you not?”; he stopped immediately, offered water and left the room. She told her friend and a spa assistant shortly afterwards, and gave a police statement the next morning.
He was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, and in April 2023 was charged with intentionally touching a woman aged 16 or over in a sexual way without consent. At Stoke on Trent Crown Court in July 2024 a jury acquitted him. The acquittal did not end matters: the HCPC brought the same events before a HCPTS panel, which applies the civil standard — more likely than not — rather than the criminal standard a jury applies.
The final hearing ran remotely from 10 to 14 November 2025. Osipowicz said neither he nor a representative would attend, sending a letter titled “Request for Review and Removal of Practice Conditions Following Crown Court Acquittal” asking the HCPC to give weight to the jury’s verdict. Thinking he had misunderstood the nature of the hearing, the panel adjourned a day for further contact attempts; when he did not respond it proceeded in his absence. It heard Service User A, her friend and the spa assistant, found their accounts consistent with her police statement, and held the touching proved, sexual in nature and sexually motivated for his own gratification.
The panel identified no mitigating factors. It treated as aggravating the breach of trust in touching a client covered only by a towel, the emotional harm to Service User A, and the absence of insight, remorse or remediation. Because it was a single incident, not a pattern and not at the upper end of seriousness for sexual misconduct cases, it decided strike-off would be disproportionate and imposed the maximum 12-month suspension, adding an interim suspension of up to 18 months to cover the appeal period.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The findings reached the public through the regulator’s published record: the HCPTS determination was published in full, and MedicWatch, an independent record of UK regulator decisions, published a summary and lists Osipowicz in its running record of suspended practitioners. The panel anticipated the public response, judging that a member of the public would be “shocked and horrified” at such behaviour and that failing to act would undermine confidence in the profession. The immediate consequences were regulatory: the suspension, the interim order and a published determination treating sexually motivated misconduct as a very serious category of case. The case also illustrates the gap between criminal and regulatory outcomes, the panel being entitled to make findings on the lower civil standard.
Current Status
On 14 November 2025 the panel directed the registrar to suspend Osipowicz from the HCPC register for 12 months. The order does not take effect until the 28-day appeal period expires or any appeal is concluded; meanwhile he is subject to an interim suspension of up to 18 months should he appeal. The panel set out matters that may assist a future reviewing panel: participation at any review, reflection on the impact of sexual misconduct, boundary training, keeping skills up to date and testimonials. MedicWatch notes that the start date, appeal provisions and any later review affect whether the suspension is currently in force, and points readers to the official register.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The suspension removes Osipowicz from practice as a registered physiotherapist for a year, the panel having come close to striking him off altogether. Service User A’s consequences outlasted the incident: the panel accepted she suffered emotional harm, her victim statement describing ongoing mistrust of and reluctance to access physiotherapy services. Because he did not engage with the hearing, the panel had no evidence of insight or remediation, though reading the decision might yet prompt insight before a future reviewing panel. Nothing in the published material records any public statement from him beyond his letter to the regulator.