A biomedical scientist who called her Portuguese neighbour a “Spanish whore” and “slag” during a row over a fire alarm was cautioned by police for a hate crime and struck off by the Health and Care Professions Council. The Telegraph has more.
Kelly Madden launched a foul-mouthed rant at her neighbour after drinking “an entire bottle of cheap rosé by accident”, a disciplinary hearing was told.
She was charged by the police and handed a caution for the “racist slur”, before being suspended from the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) by a tribunal.
Now, after a review hearing, Ms. Madden has been struck off after a panel concluded that that was the only way to “protect the public”.
She was reported to police by her neighbour, a young Portuguese woman, following an argument the pair had in July 2020 in Norwich in when Ms Madden set off fire alarms in her building by mistake. She had activated the alarm “preparing soup” on a hot day, a disciplinary hearing was told.
In a statement, Ms. Madden said: “The fire alarm activated the other fire alarms and my neighbour became extremely agitated and was shouting in the hall and on the landing.
“I told her there wasn’t a fire and apologised, which I always do when the alarm activates accidentally.
“She was hysterical and I was drunk on a bottle of wine so we had an argument at the top of the landing outside my door and I called her ‘a Spanish slag’ and told her to go away if she didn’t like it.
“I also stuck my fingers up at her because I just wanted her to stop screaming outside my door. She then called the local police and accused me of hate crime.”
While she accepted she should not have shouted at her neighbour, Ms. Madden added: “Ultimately I’m not her mother and I didn’t realise it was illegal to call someone a ‘Spanish whore’”.
Ms. Madden was suspended from the HCPC for nine months in March 2022 by a panel which described her behaviour as “outrageous”.
Her suspension was then extended further by three review panels before a final hearing.
Worth reading in full.
No wonder the police have no time to solve trifling things like burglaries when there are serious cases of hurty words to take decisive action against.
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