A dispensing optician jailed for six years six months by Liverpool Crown Court for 'very grave' sex offences and assault, has been struck off by the General Optical Council.
Leo Martin Threlfall, 47, was sentenced on December 20 last year after he admitted two counts of sexual assault on a female. Threlfall, who was also ordered to remain on the sex offenders register for life, was struck off after a GOC disciplinary hearing which was held in private in London earlier this week.
No further details of offences were revealed but during the hearing, Barbara Hewson, representing Threlfall, gave 'the particular circumstances of the offences and of Threlfall himself including his background and behaviour since the offences'.
In the decision to strike Threlfall off, panel chair Mercy Jeyasingham said: 'The fitness of Mr Threlfall to practise as a dispensing optician is impaired because of the grave effect on his reputation and that of the profession caused by the fact of the convictions, the full circumstances of those convictions and the lengthy sentence of imprisonment imposed by the court.'