Joseph Castro James Justin

Introduction

Joseph Castro James Justin, 34, is a nurse who has been struck off the UK nursing register after a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) fitness to practise panel ruled that his behaviour — a sexual assault on a vulnerable young patient under the guise of an A&E examination — was fundamentally incompatible with remaining a registered nurse. The strike-off follows his criminal conviction: at Wood Green Crown Court in July 2025 he was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault for the August 18, 2020 examination, and sentenced to five years and six months in prison with indefinite registration as a sex offender. He is currently serving that sentence at HMP Maidstone.

Background Information

Justin was working at University College London Hospitals when he carried out the examination on a woman on August 18, 2020, intentionally touching the patient’s vagina and breasts without her consent during what was presented as a clinical procedure. He had previously been living in Watford. He was arrested eight days after the assault and denied the offences, but was convicted at Wood Green Crown Court in July 2025 on two counts of sexual assault. The patient, referred to in proceedings as Patient A, suffered significant psychological harm, which the panel heard had included an eating disorder, self-harm and months as a virtual recluse.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Struck off by the nursing regulator. An NMC fitness to practise panel ruled that Joseph Castro James Justin’s conviction for sexually assaulting a patient during an examination made him fundamentally incompatible with the register, ordering him struck off with an interim suspension in place during the appeal period.

The NMC panel quoted the sentencing remarks of Judge Blackwell: “For the avoidance of doubt, the elements of your offending which have led to severe psychological harm amount to the eating disorder, the self-harm and the fact that [Patient A] became a virtual recluse for many months and lost her care-free adolescence.” The panel found aggravating features in the abuse of a position of trust, the vulnerability of the patient, “predatory behaviour and isolation within a clinical space,” and the sustained nature of the assault, noting that the offending only stopped when Justin was interrupted.

On insight and remediation the panel found nothing to weigh: there was no evidence Justin had demonstrated insight, reflection or remorse, and his offending indicated a “deep-seated attitudinal issue” that would be extremely difficult to remedy. It concluded that allowing him to continue practising would undermine public confidence in nursing and that nothing short of striking him from the register would be sufficient. Because the criminal appeal window was still open, the panel also imposed an interim 18-month suspension order to run while the 28-day appeal period expires.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The consequences stack across two systems: the criminal conviction and prison sentence from 2025, and the regulatory erasure from 2026. The London Now report of the panel’s decision was published in November 2026, about sixteen months after the Crown Court sentence, and records no comment from Justin, no representation from UCLH, and no family statement. The striking-off removes him from the register regardless of when his prison term ends, so his name cannot return to nursing work on release without a successful readmission application the findings make remote.

Current Status

Justin is struck off the NMC register, with the removal effective subject to the interim 18-month suspension that covers the 28-day appeal period. He remains incarcerated at HMP Maidstone serving his five-and-a-half-year sentence for the two sexual assaults, and remains on the sex offender register indefinitely as ordered at sentencing. No appeal against either the conviction or the strike-off was reported.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The panel’s finding forecloses Justin’s nursing career permanently in practical terms: a struck-off nurse convicted of assaulting a patient during a clinical examination is among the least likely candidates the regulator would ever readmit, and the panel’s own language — no insight, a deep-seated attitudinal issue — documents why. His prison sentence continues until roughly the end of the decade given the July 2025 sentencing date, after which the indefinite sex-offender registration applies. The patient’s harms, as the panel recorded them, included the loss of her “care-free adolescence” — the human cost the regulator weighed against any prospect of restoration.

Sources

• “University College London Hospitals: Nurse struck off” source