A Southampton nurse who was jailed for sexually assaulting a waitress has been struck off the nursing register.

Yesterday the Nursing and Midwifery Council imposed a striking off order for Matthew Lloyd following his detention under the Mental Health Act after being found guilty of the terrifying attack.

The Fitness to Practice hearing heard that at the time of the assault the 37-year-old was working at Southampton General Hospital in the infectious disease ward but he was suspended in October 2010 while the investigation was carried out.

He first hit the headlines in October 2010 when he sparked an international search over fears that he had contracted malaria during a drugs trial three months after the assault on the 20-year-old woman in Shirley .

Lloyd, who lived in Shirley Road before his conviction, denied the sexual assault and a second charge of common assault on the same woman but a jury at Southampton Crown Court took just 50 minutes to find him guilty in September 2011.

During the three-day trial, the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said a smiling stranger groped her as she walked along Howard Road, Shirley.

The woman told the jury she pressed her fingers into his windpipe to try to fight him off as he continued to assault her sexually. She said the only thing he said was: “How are you doing?”

Later she ran into Lloyd again in Shirley High Street and he tried to attack her again but she fended him off and got home.

“Both times he was smiling,” she said. “He enjoyed me being in fear.”

Lloyd was diagnosed with schizophrenia and would require longterm care so he was sentenced to a hospital order and also an unrestricted order over concerns that he was a danger to the public.

He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.