Michael Hollingworth

Introduction

Michael Hollingworth is an occupational therapist who was registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) under registration number OT086275. On 29 May 2026, at the end of a substantive hearing that had begun on 28 May 2026, a panel of the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) found his fitness to practise impaired by misconduct and directed that he be struck off the register. The case concerned accessing or possessing five indecent images of children — one Category B image and four Category C images — before December 2022. An allegation that he had uploaded images to the internet was removed because there was no supporting evidence, and the panel therefore did not find that he had uploaded any images.

Background Information

The published record identifies Hollingworth only as an occupational therapist holding HCPC registration OT086275. It does not name an employer, a workplace or a specialty, and it does not describe his training, career or personal history; this page does not guess at any of them. His MedicWatch profile records his most recent published outcome as erasure — struck off the register — decided on 29 May 2026 by the Health and Care Professions Council, while noting his registration status as not yet verified and directing readers to the official HCPC register for current details. MedicWatch aggregates regulator outcomes and states it does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Regulator findings alongside a criminal outcome. The criminal case ended in a conditional discharge; the HCPC proceeded on the underlying conduct as misconduct rather than on a conviction ground. The panel found the image possession allegation proved on the balance of probabilities, and expressly did NOT find that he had uploaded images — that allegation was removed for lack of supporting evidence.

The allegation before the panel, in its amended form, was that Hollingworth accessed or possessed one Category B and four Category C indecent images of children before December 2022. An allegation of uploading images to the internet was removed because there was no supporting evidence.

The panel found the amended factual allegation proved and characterised the matter as misconduct. It found Hollingworth’s fitness to practise currently impaired on both the personal and public components. The criminal proceedings had ended in a conditional discharge — not a custodial sentence — so the HCPC proceeded on misconduct based on the underlying facts rather than on conviction as a statutory ground. In assessing impairment and sanction, the panel found no evidence of meaningful insight or remediation and a continuing risk of repetition, and on that basis it directed erasure from the register.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published record contains no press coverage of the hearing and no public statements — none from Hollingworth or any other party. The concrete consequences recorded in the determinations are the erasure direction of 29 May 2026 and a separate interim suspension covering the appeal period, which the panel set for a maximum of 18 months.

That interim suspension has its own hearing history. At an interim orders hearing on 23 January 2026, an HCPTS panel conducting an interim order review before the Investigating Committee confirmed an interim suspension; at a further review on 5 May 2026, the panel confirmed and continued it. Interim orders are precautionary restrictions; the published interim determinations record that they are not findings of fault, and at the time they were made the underlying allegations had not yet been adjudicated.

Current Status

Hollingworth was struck off the HCPC register by the panel’s decision of 29 May 2026. His MedicWatch profile records erasure as his most recent published outcome, notes his registration status as not yet verified, and directs readers to the official HCPC register for his current position.

The sanction is regulatory. The criminal case ended in a conditional discharge, and no custodial sentence appears in the published record; the erasure direction rests on the panel’s own findings of misconduct and current impairment on the personal and public components, together with its conclusion of a continuing risk of repetition following the absence of meaningful insight or remediation.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Erasure ended Hollingworth’s registration to practise as an occupational therapist in the UK unless a future restoration application succeeds. The panel’s route to that outcome matters for how the case is understood: because the criminal proceedings ended in a conditional discharge, the HCPC did not proceed on a conviction ground but proved the underlying facts as misconduct, and the panel expressly did not find that he had uploaded images, since that allegation was removed for lack of supporting evidence.

Beyond the determinations, the published record contains no information about his circumstances since the decision, and nothing on this page should be read as going beyond it.

Sources

*MedicWatch, “HCPTS orders Michael Hollingworth struck off over indecent images” (HCPC determination, decision dated 29 May 2026) — source
*MedicWatch, “Interim order imposed” (HCPC determination, decision dated 23 January 2026) — source
*MedicWatch, “Interim order imposed” (HCPC determination, decision dated 5 May 2026) — source
*MedicWatch, “Michael Hollingworth — Occupational therapist · Health and Care Professions Council OT086275” — source