Student suspension deemed necessary

In a review of an interim order placed on former optometry student Karampreet Roewal on March 27 2008, a General Optical Council fitness to practise committee was entirely satisfied that suspension from the register for 12 months was necessary.

The committee could find no reason for either revoking or varying the order.

Roewal, who was not present or represented at the hearing, was expelled from Aston University in January for terrorising female students with threats of stabbing and mutilation, and for stabbing a kitchen knife into a kitchen worktop at their flat, as reported in Optician April 4.

The committee also considered a letter from Roewal, dated August 23. In the letter he claimed the allegations against him, which he had previously admitted to an Aston University registrar, were 'unjust, unfair and allegations which I would have denied had I understood the nature of those allegations'.