Child sex pic nurse could be struck off

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), April 6, 2004

Byline: By Amy Cartmell

A senior nurse who quit in shame after being exposed as a pervert faces being struck off.

David Short, 46, was snared in a joint FBI and Northumbria Police operation which caught him with a stash of child pornography.

Short left his job as a theatre nurse at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary shortly after his arrest in October 2002.

He admitted downloading pictures in a six-month period from 1999 to 2000.

Married Short, of Hextol Terrace, Hexham, was sentenced to a two-year community rehabilitation order and put on a sex offender group programme, as well as the sex offender register for five years.

And today the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) will consider a charge of misconduct relating to Short's conviction.

A spokesman for the NMC said: "Mr Short faces one charge of misconduct relating to his conviction in 2003.

"The sanctions open to the professional conduct hearing committee will be a caution, removal from the register or no further action."

Short was tracked to his home in a quiet, tree-lined street as part of Operation Ore - a crackdown on illegal internet pornography sites. Ore was launched following an investigation by the FBI into internet child pornography, and suspects' details were passed on to more than 30 British police forces.

Short was captured after his credit card details were spotted on a child pornography website which had been taken over by FBI investigators.

His card details, e-mail address and home address were then passed on to Britain's National Crime Squad.

During the case, prosecutor Kingsley Hyland told the court police recovered 74 indecent images of children from Short's computer.

Short was suspended following his arrest and resigned several months later.