William Robert Stuart Aspinall
Introduction
William Robert Stuart Aspinall is a UK dentist who was suspended from the GDC register for six months on 16 June 2026, after a Professional Conduct Committee found he had touched two female colleagues without their consent in conduct that was sexual and sexually motivated: pressing his crotch against a dental nurse in the surgery and slapping her bottom with a hand mirror, touching her waist and attempting to kiss her in a nightclub, and touching a dental therapist’s thigh in a taxi. The committee found impairment on public interest grounds only and did not impose an immediate order .
Background Information
The allegations centred on the period from around May 2021 to around April 2022, when Witness 1, a dental nurse, worked with him. It was alleged that he intentionally rubbed and/or pushed his crotch against her in the surgery, slapped her bottom with a hand mirror, sprayed water and/or anaesthetic at her, and touched her leg while she was aspirating; that in a nightclub in April 2022 he touched her waist and attempted to kiss her; and that he sent her an inappropriate Snapchat message. A separate count covered touching the leg of Witness 2, a dental therapist, in a taxi on or around 13 July 2024 .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated (regulatory). The findings are a GDC committee’s conclusions on the civil standard of proof. No criminal charge was involved in this determination.
The committee found the core allegations proved: the crotch rubbing and the mirror slap in the surgery, the nightclub waist touch and attempted kiss, and the taxi touch on Witness 2’s thigh — in each case intentionally, without consent and without any reasonable belief in consent, and in each case found inappropriate, sexual and sexually motivated. Three allegations failed: spraying water or anaesthetic at intimate areas, touching Witness 1’s leg while she was aspirating, and the Snapchat message were all found not proved .
On impairment, the committee took an unusual split: the proved conduct was misconduct, but the risk of repetition was found highly unlikely, so fitness to practise was impaired on public interest grounds only. It directed a six-month suspension without a review, declined an immediate order, and revoked the interim order that had been in place .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The consequence is the six-month suspension and the findings themselves, which name the conduct in full. The case is recorded in MedicWatch’s listing of dental professionals suspended in 2026 .
The committee’s aggravating findings mark the case as more than a single lapse: actual emotional harm to both witnesses, premeditated misconduct, a substantial power imbalance between the registrant and the two women, breach of trust and abuse of his position of authority, and misconduct sustained and repeated over a considerable period of time. In mitigation it credited the absence of any previous fitness to practise history, previous good character, evidence of insight, remorse and remedial action, the time elapsed, and no repetition of the behaviour since .
Current Status
Aspinall is serving a six-month suspension imposed on 16 June 2026, with no review directed — the order simply expires. Because the committee found the risk of repetition highly unlikely and made no immediate order, he was free to practise until the suspension took effect after the appeal period, and free to return when it ends .
The findings on the public register are permanent, and the not-proved allegations — the spraying, the aspirating touch, the message — form no part of the basis for the sanction. What remains proved is enough: a pattern of sexual touching across three settings spanning more than three years, from the surgery in 2021-22 to the taxi in July 2024 .
Impact on Their Career/Life
The six-month suspension with no review reads as lenient next to the findings — premeditated, sustained, against two colleagues — and the committee said why: remediation had already happened, the behaviour had stopped, and time had passed. But the proved findings follow a dentist permanently, and the power imbalance the committee identified is the part of the record that will outlast the order: both women worked under him, in the surgery where he treated patients and they assisted. The public-interest-only impairment is the committee’s way of saying the register’s rules were broken even if the public is no longer at risk from him personally .