Central Coast Physiotherapist jalied and deregistered

Name: Youngjin Jung

Education: Physiotherapist; graduated from Curtin University, 2009.

Practice: Ocean Beach Physiotherapy Practice at Umina Beach, Central Coast, NSW.

Criminal case: Jung v R [2017] NSWCCA 24 (6 March 2017)

Civil case/disciplinary action: Deregistered 7 years from 19 April 2018; Health Care Complaints Commission v Jung [2018] NSWCATOD 53

Overview of legal action against Youngjin Jung

In 2016 Mr Jung was convicted of eight counts of indecent assault in relation to six female patients that occurred between 23 April and 12 June 2014. Mr Jung was sentenced to an aggregate sentence of five years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of three and a half years. He will be eligible for parole on 22 August 2019.

Indecent assault accusations against the physiotherapist included massaging patients’ breasts and touching pubic area of a patient. The “conduct was not in any way related to therapeutic treatment,” Judge Clive Jeffreys said in handing down his sentence. “It was undertaken by the offender for sexual gratification­.”

The Health Care Complaints Commission (‘the Commission’) prosecuted Mr Youngjin Jung before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (‘the Tribunal’). The Commission alleged that because Mr Jung had been convicted of criminal offences in NSW he was not a suitable person to hold registration as a physiotherapist.

On 19 April 2018, the Tribunal found that Mr Jung was not a suitable person to hold registration as a physiotherapist. The Tribunal cancelled Mr Jung’s registration and ordered a non-review period of 7 years. The Tribunal also made a prohibition order that Mr Jung be prohibited from providing any health services for a period of seven years.