Farrier jailed for serious sexual offences is struck off to protect women and girls
A farrier who was sent to prison for 10 sexual offences including six counts of rape over some 30 years has been struck off for serious misconduct.
The Farriers Registration Council (FRC) has published its disciplinary committee’s decision on Malcolm Sloss, who was jailed for 13 years last January.
Sloss, 72 at the time, was sentenced at Paisley Sheriff Court on Friday, 10 January, 2025. Police Scotland Detective Inspector Peter MacMillan said at the time: “Sloss preyed on vulnerable females for a number of years and subjected his victims to horrific sexual assaults. He will now face the consequences of his actions.”
Sloss had been convicted of one charge each of indecent assault, sexual assault, communicating indecently with a young child and lewd and libidinous practices and behaviour, as well as the six counts of serious sexual assault.
The FRC disciplinary committee scheduled a hearing by video link on 20 March. Malcolm Sloss did not virtually attend from prison, nor was he represented.
FRC solicitor Catriona Watt described Sloss’s offences as “of the utmost gravity”, and noted that they had been committed over some 30 years, from 1988 to 2021.
“She drew the committee’s attention to the remarks of the sentencing judge, who condemned the defendant’s behaviour ‘in the strongest possible terms’ and imposed ‘a significant prison sentence to punish [him] for his behaviour and to mark to [him] and to others the consequences which will follow this type of serious sexual abuse’,” the committee’s report states.
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“She advised the committee that the defendant continued to maintain his innocence and drew attention to letters received from him (in response to the council advising him that his case was to be referred to the investigating committee) to this effect. She submitted that the committee should find the charge against the defender proved.”
The committee found that the conviction was enough to prove the misconduct charge.
Malcolm Sloss met one victim through his work
Ms Watt pointed out that “it was clear from the remarks of the sentencing judge that the defendant came into contact with one of his victims through his work as a farrier – as such, it could not be said that his offending behaviour was entirely unconnected with his work”.
“She submitted that there could be no circumstances in which a farrier on the council’s register, convicted of such a number of serious sexual assaults over such a long period of time, could be anything other than guilty of serious misconduct in a professional respect,” the report states.
“The committee considered the defendant’s conviction was in respect of offences of the utmost gravity and that there had been a clear breach of the standards and responsibilities set out in the code. The committee considered that the fact that the defender had encountered one of his victims through his work as a farrier was an aggravating factor. The committee did not identify any mitigating factors.”
Ms Watts said aggravating factors included the “nature and extent” of the offending, the fact he met at least one of his young victims through his work as a farrier and “the risk he poses to women and girls – both clients, and members of the public at large”.
“The only mitigating factor was his lack of any previous regulatory history,” the report states. “The committee considered that the seriousness of the defendant’s conviction was such that no sanction other than removal from the register was sufficient to protect the public, protect the reputation of the profession and regulator and the wider public interest. The committee considered that the defendant’s offending behaviour (as proved by the extract conviction) was fundamentally incompatible with him being a registered farrier.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.