December 2005

Ex-nurse struck off over child porn images

A former nurse from Surbiton has been struck off the medical register after pleading guilty to downloading pornographic images of children from the internet, writes Hannah Summers.

Peter Jackson Duncan, 45, who is from Berrylands, served a six-month jail sentence for the offence in October 2004. At a National Midwifery Council (NMC) professional conduct committee hearing last Friday, the chair said Mr Duncan, who now works in a postroom, should be removed from the register indefinitely and with immediate effect.

The chair, Kathy McLean said: “By subscribing to the child pornography industry, the respondent has abused his position of trust to a vulnerable group in society, by helping to perpetrate the sexual abuse of children.”

Mr Duncan, who did not attend the hearing, worked as a specialist practitioner district nurse for Blackwater Valley and Hart Primary Care Trust in Hampshire. He was arrested on July 22, 2004, after the police obtained a warrant to search his house, and discovered the child pornography on his home computer.

Giving evidence, DC William Maclean said: “Mr Duncan made a full and frank admission to possessing and making the indecent images of children.”

The photos were largely of young girls aged between 11 and 13.

DC Maclean claimed that, in his experience, the number of images possessed by Mr Duncan was relatively small.

However, one of the photographs was categorised as the most serious “level five” type of child pornography in which the child was clearly distressed.

Appearing before Horseferry Magistrates’ Court last year, Mr Duncan was charged with 50 counts of making (downloading) indecent photos of children and was also charged with possessing 71 indecent images of children.

He was sentenced to six months imprisonment to run concurrently and was placed on the sex offenders register for seven years.

Rosemary Rollason, presenting the case for council, told the committee: “In fairness to Mr Duncan in his absence, the images were downloaded on his home computer and, therefore, were not directly obtained in the course of his employment.”

Also prior to his arrest, the trust had no concerns about Mr Duncan’s ability as a district nurse, nor did he have a record of any previous offences. Although absent at last week’s hearing in Park Crescent (W1), Mr Duncan wrote to the committee saying he had no plans to re-enter nursing and urging them to take a decision so he could start to rebuild his life.

He stated: “I have been more than adequately punished and find this procedure adds insult to injury upsetting my own efforts to rehabilitate myself.”

The letter read: “On reflection, my unhappiness in the work may have been a contributory factor in the world-weariness that led to my offence. Trite as it sounds, I live with my own sense of shame and stupidity and any self-confidence I accumulated over the years has evaporated.”

But the committee felt his explanations showed “no real insight into the implications of his actions”.

Chairwoman Ms Mclean said Mr Duncan’s behaviour compromised the NMC’s code of conduct, even if it was not directly connected to his professional practice.

She also noted that in a document of his, Mr Duncan admitted he had inappropriate feelings towards young girls.

She concluded: “His behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with being a nurse and the respondent must be removed from the register in order to protect the public”.