Nurse found not guilty of an allegation…

The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal has found a nurse not guilty of an allegation that a conviction for attempting to pervert the course of justice adversely reflected on her fitness to practice as a nurse.

The nurse had been convicted in the District Court of attempting to pervert the course of justice.  This related to attempting to dissuade her daughter from continuing with a complaint of sexual assault by the nurse’s former husband.

The Tribunal found that the nurse’s actions did not reflect adversely on her fitness to practice as a nurse because she had acted as a concerned mother who sought to protect her daughter from the traumatic incident she had experienced as well as the trauma from a Court room process.  She was not motivated by any desire to protect her former husband from the allegations.

The nurse was living with her two daughters and working to support them from her income as a nurse and was divorced from her former husband.

Alan Knowsley

Medical Lawyer
Wellington