ASHBY:PHARMACIST ADMITS BATTERING OFFICIAL AT MISCONDUCT HEA…
batter…1
A pharmacist who battered an official over the head with an iron bar in an astonishing outburst during a misconduct hearing is facing a possible jail sentence.
Australian Edwin Ashby, 61, admitted attacking Desmond Fitzpatrick after learning he was about to be struck off.
Ashby went berserk at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society hearing, shouting: ‘I have had enough of your bulls**t.’
He produced the 10-inch metal bar from a pocket, lurched forward and struck Mr Fitzpatrick, the interim head of professional conduct at the RPS headquarters in Lambeth.
Ashby had to be restrained by bystanders while Mr Fitzpatrick was left with blood pouring from a wound to the head.
The Australian exploded after being found guilty of a series of misconduct charges relating to theft of drugs, assault and foul-mouthed abuse of female members of staff at chemists across the country.
Ashby pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm at a brief hearing at Inner London Crown Court today. The charge carries the maximum term of five years jail.
Judge Quentin Campbell adjourned sentencing until June 18 while probation and psychiatric reports are prepared, but warned Ashby he was not ruling out a jail sentence.
The outburst on October 25 last year started when the panel struck off Ashby for hurling four-letter insults at fellow workers and customers.
The society delivered the punishment after 37 different complaints against Ashby were upheld.
He produced a 10-inch iron bolt and attacked Mr Fitzpatrick before being disarmed by panel members.
He had been found guilty of assaulting a colleague, stealing medicine, making a string of dispensing errors and dishing out the heroin substitute methadone to addicts who did not have prescriptions.
Ashby told colleagues to ‘p**s off’ and ‘shut up’ then labelled female colleagues a ‘stupid bitch’ and an ‘arrogant cow’ in front of shocked customers while he was the manager of St John’s Pharmacy, Crescent Street, Weymouth, Dorset, in November 2002.
He went on to work as a locum pharmacist manager at Moss Pharmacy, 78 Hall Road, Norwich, in July 2003 but only lasted four days after he reduced his staff to tears.
Ashby was moved to a different Moss pharmacy in Dereham Road, Norwich, but continued to abuse his colleagues.
The chemist last worked as a locum at the Alliance Pharmacy in (122) Quay Road, Bridlington, north Yorkshire, where he physically assaulted a colleague on or about November 20, 2003.
When hauled in front of the society he blamed his problems on ‘incompetent’ British staff, telling an RPS investigator his colleagues in Bridlington were ‘f***ing f***wits’.
But the society launched an enquiry into Ashby’s activities after getting a string of complaints.
After his outburst RPS chairman Lord Fraser of Carmyllie had told him: ‘If anything has confirmed our view, you just have.’
Ashby, of Field House, Main Street, Ingoldsby, Grantham, Lincs, admitted one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He comes from a farming family in Perth, Western Australia, Ashby and was registered as a pharmacist in Hastings, east Sussex.
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