Mompati Isaacs

Introduction

Mompati Isaacs is a social care worker who was removed from the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) register in 2026 after being convicted of murdering his wife. Isaacs, whose full name was given in reporting as Mompati Dodo Isaacs, was found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh on 17 September 2025 of the murder of Keotshepile Naso Isaacs on New Year’s Day 2024, and was jailed for life that October. The SSSC subsequently struck him off the register of social care workers in Scotland, with the removal reported by the East Lothian Courier on 14 June 2026. The case is unusual in that it concerned a care worker with no prior fitness-to-practise history, whose registration ended not because of misconduct towards service users but because of a murder committed away from work.

Background Information

Isaacs had worked in social care since 2019, and the SSSC case was the first time his fitness to practise had ever been called into question. He was married to Keotshepile Naso Isaacs, and the couple’s home was in North Berwick, East Lothian, where the killing took place on New Year’s Day 2024. The case was heard as a criminal matter first: a murder trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, the most serious court in Scotland, ending in his conviction on 17 September 2025 and a life sentence imposed the following month. The SSSC process that removed him from the register was a separate, regulatory proceeding that followed from that conviction.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated. Isaacs’s conviction for the murder of Keotshepile Naso Isaacs was returned at the High Court in Edinburgh on 17 September 2025 and is a matter of court record; he was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2025. The SSSC’s striking-off described below is a regulatory decision founded on that conviction, reached through the council’s fitness-to-practise process after Isaacs chose not to request a hearing. Nothing in this section rests on an unproven allegation.

The court found that Isaacs murdered his wife after believing she had been cheating on him. The finding was that, after a history of abuse throughout the marriage, Isaacs assaulted his wife, pushed her onto a bed, held her down, and repeatedly stabbed and struck her on the head, neck and body with a knife. She died on New Year’s Day 2024 at the couple’s home in North Berwick. The jury convicted him of murder on 17 September 2025, and he was jailed for life in October 2025.

In its findings, the SSSC stated: “Your fitness to practise is impaired because social care workers must uphold public trust and confidence. They must not behave, while in or outside work, in a way that would bring their suitability work in social care into question. You murdered Keotshepile Naso Isaacs in a violent attack. The conviction raises significant concerns about your values and your suitability to continue working in a social care role caring and supporting vulnerable people. This behaviour is at the highest end of the seriousness and is fundamentally incompatible with professional registration with the SSSC.” The SSSC also concluded: “Your behaviour was violent, abusive and indicates deep-seated attitudinal values capable of placing individuals using services at an increased risk of harm.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The striking-off was reported by the East Lothian Courier in June 2026 under a headline describing Isaacs as a social care worker struck off after murdering his wife. A letter sent to Isaacs in April 2026 informed him of the proposed removal, and he did not request a hearing. No evidence was found suggesting he had ever harmed service users during his employment, but the SSSC found that the seriousness of the crime left no alternative but to remove him from the register. In its sanction reasoning, the SSSC report stated: “A warning would not be appropriate as the behaviour is extremely serious and serious harm was caused to another as a result of your actions. A condition would not be appropriate because the behaviour involved is extremely violent and was abusive, which is a type of behaviour that conditions could not rectify. The behaviour is extremely serious and is fundamentally incompatible with continuing registration. For the reasons outlined above, a suspension order plus conditions would not be appropriate. The SSSC considers a removal order is the most appropriate sanction as it is both necessary and justified in the public interest, and to maintain the continuing trust and confidence in the social service profession and the SSSC as the regulator of the profession.”

Current Status

As of the SSSC removal reported on 14 June 2026, Isaacs is struck off the Scottish Social Services Council register and is serving a life sentence for murder. The removal decision followed the April 2026 letter and his decision not to request a hearing. The SSSC considered a removal order necessary and justified in the public interest and to maintain continuing trust and confidence in the social service profession and in the SSSC as its regulator. The reporting contains no indication of an appeal against either the conviction or the striking-off.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The removal order ends Isaacs’s registration as a social care worker in Scotland, closing a career that had run since 2019 without any prior fitness-to-practise question. The SSSC’s position was that the murder conviction, and the violent and abusive behaviour it reflected, demonstrated deep-seated attitudinal values capable of placing people using services at increased risk of harm, and that the behaviour sat at the highest end of seriousness and was fundamentally incompatible with professional registration. The fact that no evidence tied the offending to his employment made no difference to the outcome: the regulator concluded that a removal order was the only sanction capable of marking the gravity of a life taken and of preserving public trust in a profession built on caring for vulnerable people.