Sipho Nkanyezi
Introduction
Sipho Nkanyezi is a paramedic formerly registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) under number PA40247 who worked for the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust. On 18 December 2023 a panel of the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) struck him off the register, having proved his conviction for sexual assault on a female and found his fitness to practise impaired by it. He did not attend and was not represented; proper notice by email on 20 November 2023 was confirmed.
Background Information
In 2019 Nkanyezi was employed at London Ambulance Service NHS Trust. The case that ended his registration arose not from an ambulance callout but a private social occasion: on the night of 3–4 May 2019 Person 1, a female colleague, invited him to a night out with her friends and agreed he could stay overnight at her home with the group. HCPTS records also show an interim order imposed on 6 February 2020 and interim suspensions maintained through seven reviews between 4 November 2021 and 21 September 2023.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convictions are facts; striking-off is the regulatory consequence. Nkanyezi’s conviction at Chelmsford Crown Court on 10 December 2021 is a matter of court record: tried and convicted after pleading not guilty, with no appeal against either conviction or sentence. By virtue of the conviction, a jury concluded his account of events was untrue; what the HCPTS panel assessed was its regulatory consequence.
The prosecution case, as recounted in the determination, was that at a bar and club Nkanyezi — who seemed drunk — made Person 1 uncomfortable: he stared and leered at her, grinding his groin into her bottom from behind. The group returned to her flat and went to bed; he was in the living room with two others while Person 1 was in her bedroom with a friend. During the night he came into her room; believing he was collecting his belongings, she tried to go back to sleep. He put his hand down the front of her pyjama shorts and touched her vagina; she snapped her legs crossed. He moved his hand under her pyjama top and touched her bare breast, playing with her nipple. Petrified, she froze, then turned away; he put his hand back into her shorts and touched her bottom and vagina again. He did not penetrate her at any time. Person 1 called to her friend, saying “Get him to stop”; he withdrew his hand, and she ran from the room asking her friends to get rid of him.
After leaving, he messaged her; she tried to block him, but he persisted and tried to call her. When she told him he had sexually assaulted her, he said he was sorry and asked to talk, saying “If I offended you tonight in any way, I apologise”. Police interviewed him under caution on 6 May 2019: he suggested Person 1 had invited him to sleep in her bedroom and that she had kicked him out for no reason he knew of, and denied touching her sexually. At trial he pleaded not guilty; Person 1 gave evidence, and the jury convicted him on 10 December 2021. Sentencing him to 18 months’ imprisonment suspended for 24 months, with an indefinite restraining order protecting Person 1, £2,000 compensation, £2,800 costs and sex-offender notification requirements for 10 years, the Recorder concluded that Person 1 — who had a predisposition to post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety — suffered significantly afterwards, including thoughts of suicidal self-harm; that the offence breached her trust as colleague and friend in her own home, where she should feel safe; and that it was to his credit that, a 37-year-old man of good character who had moved with his family to Australia, he returned to face trial.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The HCPC, represented by Ms Clare Strickland, relied on the certificate of conviction; satisfied it related to Nkanyezi and showed a tried and convicted sexual assault on a female, the panel found the allegation proved. On impairment it found no evidence of remediation: he had denied the allegation, as he was entitled to, but had not shown any recognition of the serious adverse impact sexual misconduct has on trust between colleagues, and it concluded he may well pose an ongoing risk to them — impaired on the personal component. On the public component it held he had fallen seriously short of the standards of decency and integrity the public expects, findings necessary to maintain confidence in the profession and send the message that offending of this sort cannot be tolerated.
On sanction the panel worked upwards from the least restrictive option. Mediation, no action and a caution fell short of the conviction’s seriousness; conditions of practice were ruled out because every factor against them was present — no insight or remediation, abuse of professional position including vulnerability, sexual misconduct, and criminal convictions for serious offences. Suspension was rejected too. Invoking the Sanctions Policy’s position that it is normally incompatible with the HCPC’s obligation to protect the public for a registrant to remain in unrestricted practice while on the sex offenders’ register, and noting his non-engagement with the HCPC and lack of insight, the panel found striking off the only appropriate and proportionate sanction, imposing an 18-month interim suspension order under Article 31 to cover any appeal period. The published record is silent on any wider public reaction.
Current Status
Nkanyezi was struck off by the decision of 18 December 2023, directing the Registrar to remove him from the Register; an appeal lies to the High Court in England and Wales, and the record does not state whether one was brought. The HCPTS hearing history lists the final hearing — outcome “Struck off” — and the seven interim order reviews, each recorded as “Interim Suspension”; MedicWatch records the outcome as erasure, struck off the register.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The striking off ended Nkanyezi’s ability to work as a paramedic in the UK unless a future restoration application succeeded. The panel’s reasons foreclosed the usual mitigating paths: no insight, no remediation, no engagement with the regulator, and a conviction it treated as a gross breach of a colleague’s trust — a colleague who had invited him into her home — placing the case in the Sanctions Policy’s serious-cases categories for sexual misconduct and criminal convictions. Alongside the professional consequences stand the criminal ones: the suspended prison term, the restraining order, compensation, costs and a decade on the sex offenders’ notification requirements. The determination records his return from Australia to face trial; it says nothing of his circumstances since.