FORMER HEAD OF UK DRUGS REGULATOR FACES BEING STRUCK OFF MEDICAL REGISTER AFTER FAILING TO REVEAL CONVICTIONS FOR CHILD SEX OFFENCES
A former head of the UK drugs regulator has been banned from working as a doctor after failing to reveal his convictions for child sex offences.Dr Ian Hudson trained as a paediatrician and worked in the pharmaceutical industry before going on to serve as chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for six years.
But a tribunal this week ruled his fitness to practice is impaired and ordered his erasure from the General Medical Council's register of doctors, preventing him from practicing in the UK.
The panel heard Hudson was convicted at Chelmsford Magistrate's Court in 2024 of two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
He was sentenced to a six month custodial sentence suspended for 18 months, forced to sign the sex offenders register for ten years and subjected to a five year sexual harm prevention order.
But the father-of-one failed in his duty to notify the GMC of the charges and convictions 'without delay', the Medical Practitioner's Tribunal Service was told.
The hearing, presided over by three tribunal members, determined his conduct and offending were at the upper end of the scale of seriousness and there was a 'high risk' to public safety.
They suspended Hudson from the GMC's Register with immediate effect and he will be permanently struck off he fails to appeal the outcome within 28 days.
—————————————————————————————————— DOCTOR GUILTY OF ONLINE CHILD SEX OFFENCES HANDED SUSPENDED SENTENCE A doctor has been suspended from practising after speaking to ‘children’ in a sexualised way online.
Dr Ian Hudson, who had not been a practising clinician for 35 years, was suspended after he sent messages and images to chat accounts online that he believed to be children.
Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court accepted Hudson’s guilty pleas on July 30 2024, and he was convicted of two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
The former doctor had thought he was speaking to children online, but was actually speaking to undercover police officers.
On 8 August 2023, officers searched Hudson’s home address after he had been engaging in ‘sexual communications’ with children, who he believed to be a 12-year-old, and a 13-year-old girl, on chat applications.
During the conversations in June and July 2023, Hudson had requested photos from both girls and some of the conversations had been sexual in nature.
Multiple devices were seized, including two mobile phones confirmed by Hudson as belonging to him.
In the sexual conversations, he asked about the child's 'boobs' and whether the child was having sex yet.
The former doctor had first met both girls on a free anonymous online chat application that does not have an age verification process, but the age range on the platform is 18 to 99.
The undercover officers then provided Hudson with their Messenger ID, and he contacted them through another site.
It was during those conversations they made their ages clear to Hudson, but he continued the conversations and asked questions of a sexualised nature.
On October 28, 2024, Hudson was sentenced to a custodial sentence of six months, which was suspended for 18 months, alongside being placed on the sex offender’s register for 10 years.
He also has a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years.
Hudson gave no comment to all questions before being charged on July 12, 2024.
In his first Magistrates' Court appearance on July 30 2024, he entered a guilty plea to each charge.
A tribunal heard that the former doctor had also failed to inform the General Medical Council that he had been charged with the offences on July 12 2024, or that he was convicted on July 30 2024.
Hudson told the tribunal that up until the conviction he had had a 40-year successful career, helping many thousands of people around the world with bringing forward new treatments and preventing ineffectual or unsafe treatments getting to patients.
His career had been incident and complaint free and his medical competence had never been called into question.
He added that at no stage did he ever harm children, because they were undercover police officers, nor were there any indecent images of children involved.
Hudson recognised the importance of the conviction and expressed very deep regret and remorse adding 'any such conversations with children were highly inappropriate and clearly very wrong.
His judgment and behaviour were very much at fault and it was atypical for him.' He said he was on the chat site as a distraction from stresses and anxieties that he was not coping well with.
Since then, he had found the last two and a half years extremely difficult emotionally and mentally.
A reference spoke of his character.
They said the conversations were a big mistake and an error in judgment at a very vulnerable time, that he bitterly regretted the actions, and that his listening skills, concentration and self-esteem were at a very low point.
He had not harmed any patients, had not had a patient-facing role for over 35 years.
Hudson told the tribunal he had not held a licence since 2019 and was not acting in a medical capacity at the time of the events.
However, as the actions were repeated rather than singular, involving deliberate steps such as joining different platforms, engaging in ongoing exchanges, and sharing images, the tribunal suspended him.
Sexualised questions were asked with full knowledge that the individuals involved were children.
The tribunal recognised that if Hudson returned to practise, through his professional position, he could have access to children.
Although the interactions did not occur over a long period, they involved continuous actions and a clear sequence of decisions, rather than a brief or casual encounter.
At a more serious level, the behaviour directly involved children who were known to be under the age of 18.
