ESSEX HOSPITAL WORKER SENTENCED FOR CHILD ABUSE MESSAGES
A former operating department practitioner from Essex, Andrew Stenning, claimed to have sexually abused a four-year-old girl while she was sleeping.He worked at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton when he sent vulgar messages in an online chat forum in August 2023, describing detailed sexual acts committed on a child.
Unknown to Stenning, the person he was messaging was actually a police officer who had infiltrated the platform to catch paedophiles.
When arrested, Stenning denied having actually carried out the acts.
Police decided not to pursue an allegation of actual abuse but charged him with publishing an obscene article.
In May last year, he pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court and was sentenced to four months in jail.
The court heard he published obscene messages discussing the 'serious sexual abuse of a minor.' The Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service has now decided that Stenning should be banned from the profession, noting that his responsibility involved looking after patients under anesthesia, which made his statements even more troubling.
The panel remarked that his conviction reflected a 'deep-seated attitude to children' and decided he should be struck off from the register.
