Kirkcaldy doctor struck off after domestic abuse conviction and fleeing country before sentencing
A doctor who worked at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy for more than 13 years was struck off the medical register after being convicted of domestic abuse and twice breaching his bail conditions — before leaving the country and failing to turn up for sentencing.
Dr Ammar Abdulla Alrahow was found guilty at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on September 19, 2023, of one domestic abuse charge and two counts of breaching bail conditions. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal later recorded that Alrahow himself accepted that those were the three charges of which he had been found guilty.
Alrahow had worked at Victoria Hospital between February 2010 and October 2023. At the time of his arrest in September 2021, he was working there as a Clinical Fellow in Urology.
After his convictions, sentencing was postponed until October 16, 2023. Alrahow surrendered his Irish passport as part of his bail conditions, but instead of returning to court, he travelled to Iraq using an Iraqi travel document. A warrant was subsequently issued for his arrest.
His conduct then came before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal.
The tribunal considered not only his criminal convictions but his decision not to attend sentencing, together with what it described as a persistent lack of insight and absence of evidence of remorse or remediation. It concluded that removing him from the medical register was the necessary sanction.
The official GMC register now records Alrahow as “Erased” following a fitness-to-practise panel hearing, meaning he is no longer registered to practise medicine in the UK.
Alrahow maintained during the regulatory proceedings that he had been unfairly convicted of domestic abuse and said that he considered himself the victim of an assault. However, the tribunal found the fact of his convictions proved.
His case therefore goes considerably further than simply facing a domestic abuse accusation: he was convicted in court, failed to attend his sentencing hearing after travelling to Iraq, became subject to an arrest warrant and was subsequently struck off the medical register.
Clare’s Law: If you’re worried that a current or former partner may have a history of domestic abuse, you can ask police for information under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.