Nurse struck off after child porn conviction

Sean Girdlestone, 32, formerly of Loxwood Road, Rudgwick, was jailed for nine months in January this year.

A jury at Guildford Crown Court had convicted him of 11 counts of downloading indecent photos, and five counts of possessing indecent photos.

He continues to deny the charges.

Girdlestone has now been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, after a panel ruled that his actions were ‘fundamentally incompatible with a nurse remaining on the register’.

Catherine Milsom, representing Girdlestone at the Old Bailey, said no patient had been harmed and none of the images were of children he had worked with or had any contact with.

She asked the panel to impose an order which would bar him from working with children but allow him to work with adults.

The panel told him: “The panel determined that the seriousness of the conviction means that it is incompatible with continuing registration and that a striking off order is the only sanction which is sufficient to protect the public and the public interest and is the proportionate response in your case.

“Further, the need to uphold proper professional standards and maintain public confidence in the profession and the NMC as a regulator could not be sustained if your name was not removed from the register.”