A Brisbane pharmacist jailed for domestic violence offences – including setting fire to a home with his pregnant wife and mother-in-law inside – has been barred from applying for registration for more than five years.
Curtis Shae Mickan was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Supreme Court in February last year after he pleaded guilty to common assault; choking, suffocating or strangling in a domestic setting; assault occasioning bodily harm; wilful damage and arson.
In May 2021, Mickan set fire to his Wooloowin home while his wife and her mother were upstairs, hours after he had been released from custody over an earlier assault of his wife. The two women escaped the blaze, which caused $1 million damage.
In a decision published on Wednesday, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal granted the Health Ombudsman’s request to cancel Mickan’s pharmacist registration, and prohibit him from reapplying for registration for five-and-a-half years, under the Health Ombudsman Act 2013 (Qld).
Mickan admitted his conduct amounted to professional misconduct but had sought a reprimand.
Member Dick said violent behaviour against women in a domestic setting was abhorrent.
She said Mickan’s conduct was inconsistent with him being a fit and proper person to pharmacist registration.
“It would be difficult to imagine that violence, arson and breaching a protection order so soon after it was made, would not fall substantially below the standard which might reasonably be expected of a practitioner of an equivalent standard of training or experience,” she said.
Mickan submitted a psychiatrist report, which noted he suffered from an anxiety disorder and alcohol problem; had avoidant personality traits; and expressed regret, remorse and shame for his conduct.
“Concerningly, he continued to express to (the psychiatrist) that some responsibility lay with his partner in that she had provoked him by calling him pathetic,” Member Dick said.
“Clearly, this did not correspond with his rather superior view of himself and his place in the community.”
Member Dick said cancellation of Mickan’s registration would allow him time to obtain treatment and to rehabilitate, but also serve as a deterrence to other practitioners.
She made no order as to costs.
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