Medical practitioner – Disciplinary committee. The appellant osteopath failed in his appeal against a decision of the professional conduct committee of the General Osteopathic Council (the panel) to strike him off the Register of Osteopaths for unacceptable professional conduct, concerning his sexual activity with a patient. The Administrative Court held that, in such cases which struck at the heart of the trust put into the profession by the public, the protection of the reputation of the profession meant that less regard would be had to personal mitigation, and that once the case had fallen into the realm of an inappropriate sexual relationship between an osteopath and his patient, the sanction of removal from the register had been within the reasonable band of sanctions available to the panel. The court further held that the panel's reasoning, albeit succinct, had been adequate in explaining to the appellant and the public why it had decided to take the course which it had, and that the panel's decision was not flawed.