Mark Westbrook

Introduction

Mark Westbrook is a retired general practitioner, formerly on the register of the General Medical Council under number 3433229, whose career ended with his removal from that register. On 14 November 2025 he was convicted at Newport Magistrates’ Court of three offences of making indecent images of children, and on 7 May 2026 a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) tribunal, sitting at a substantive hearing that had opened the previous day, concluded that his fitness to practise was impaired by reason of that conviction and erased his name from the medical register. The outcome is recorded by MedicWatch, an independent record of UK healthcare regulator decisions.

Background Information

Westbrook practised as a GP in the United Kingdom. The determination that ended his registration records him as a retired doctor rather than a serving one, so by the time his case reached the tribunal he was no longer treating patients; the fitness to practise proceedings nevertheless went ahead, because a doctor’s registration remains subject to the regulator’s oversight whether or not they are actively working. He held what the tribunal treated as a position of public trust: the conviction concerned material depicting the abuse of children, and the tribunal later placed the case at the high end of the spectrum of seriousness. The hearing itself ran from 6 May to 7 May 2026, and the decision — erasure — was announced on the second day.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Westbrook’s conviction on three counts of making indecent images of children is a matter of court record, entered on 14 November 2025. The tribunal’s findings on impairment are regulatory findings of the MPTS on its own standard. Nothing on this page is an unproven allegation unless the determination itself says a charge was not proved.

The tribunal found proved that on 14 November 2025, at Newport Magistrates’ Court, Dr Westbrook was convicted of three offences of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of a child, contrary to sections 1(1)(a) and 6 of the Protection of Children Act 1978. The images and videos involved were categorised as 8 Category A, 2 Category B and 2 Category C. The tribunal accepted the certificate of conviction as conclusive evidence and found all paragraphs of the allegation proved.

On 12 December 2025 he was sentenced to concurrent terms of eight, four and two months’ imprisonment, suspended for 24 months. He was also made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years, and to a 10-year notification requirement under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

In assessing seriousness, the tribunal found that the behaviour was persistent, premeditated and directed at children, with a reckless disregard for professional standards. It noted that Westbrook had not informed the GMC of the charge or the conviction. Beyond a single email stating that he considered himself unfit to practise, the tribunal found no evidence of insight or remediation, and it assessed the risk of repetition as high. Its aggravating factors were set out in the determination’s own terms: the behaviour was persistent and repeated, with multiple indecent images made over approximately a month; it was directed towards children, who are inherently vulnerable; it was premeditated, as he intentionally sought out and downloaded the images; it was predatory, using the ‘Kik’ application to express a sexual interest in 14-year-old girls; it showed a reckless disregard for professional standards; and he undermined a system designed to protect the public by not informing the GMC of the charge or conviction.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The immediate consequences were both criminal and regulatory. The conviction itself carried the suspended sentence, the Sexual Harm Prevention Order and the notification requirement; separately, the tribunal turned to sanction and concluded that erasure was the only proportionate outcome, holding that Westbrook’s conviction was incompatible with continued registration, and imposed an immediate order of suspension.

Because the case was decided in a magistrates’ court and in a public tribunal rather than behind closed doors, the outcome is part of the permanent public record: anyone checking his name against the register, or consulting independent records such as MedicWatch, encounters the conviction and the erasure that followed it. No patient harm is alleged in the determination, and the tribunal’s concern was framed around public protection and the maintenance of confidence in the profession rather than his conduct towards patients. The determination does not record any statement from Westbrook beyond the single email noting his own view that he was unfit to practise.

Current Status

As of the decision date of 7 May 2026, Westbrook stands erased — struck off the medical register. Erasure removes the practitioner’s name from the register entirely, and he is no longer permitted to practise as a doctor in the United Kingdom. An erasure can be reviewed after a minimum of five years, but is otherwise indefinite; any future application would fall to be decided in light of the tribunal’s findings, including its assessment of a high risk to public protection and its conclusion that he had shown no insight or remediation.

The criminal sentence runs on its own timetable: the 24-month suspension of his prison terms, the 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and the 10-year notification requirement were all imposed in December 2025 and remain in force on the terms set by the court.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Erasure ends any possibility of Westbrook returning to medical work in the UK, whatever the state of his retirement. The tribunal’s characterisation of the offending — persistent, premeditated, predatory and directed at children, with a reckless disregard for professional standards — sits at the high end of the spectrum of seriousness, and is not a finding that fades. His failure to tell the GMC of the charge or conviction was treated as an undermining of the system designed to protect the public, and the absence of insight beyond one email means there is little, on the face of the determination, for any reviewing tribunal to weigh in his favour at the five-year mark. For a retired doctor, the sanction is in one sense symbolic and in another absolute: he was not practising, but the register is permanent and public, and his name now carries a conviction for making indecent images of children and the profession’s most severe sanction in response to it.

Sources

• MedicWatch, “Mark Westbrook — Struck off the register · 7 May 2026”, 7 May 2026.source