A disgraced doctor escaped being struck off today

A disgraced doctor escaped being struck off today (FRI) despite downloading child pornography from the Internet.

Adrian Catterall, 43, walked free from Cambridge Crown Court earlier this year after admitting 16 charges of making an indecent photograph of youngsters.

The consultant was sentenced to a three year community rehabilitation order and placed on the Sex Offender’s Register for five years.

Catterall, a father of twins, was suspended for 12 months today after appearing before the General Medical Council.

The doctor, of (47) Foxhill Road, Guilden Morden, Royston, Herts, admitted the offences before magistrates in March this year and was sentenced on May 23.

The GMC were told that police raided his home in December last year in a national clampdown on subscribers to US-based web sites.

Catterall, who worked at the Lister Hospital, Stevenage, viewed the images in 1999, the hearing was told.

The doctor, already under a court order to undergo a sex-offenders treatment programme, was found guilty of serious professional misconduct today.

Chairman Dr Kevin Dalton said Catterall had been convicted of ‘extremely serious’ offences.

‘The public is entitled to expect that registered medical practitioners conduct themselves in a professional manner, even when their actions do not directly affect patients,’ he said.

‘The committee and the public view involvement in child pornography with great concern.

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But the doctor was told it was accepted his illicit behaviour took place over a single week four years ago.

The sentencing judge had said Catterall and his family had been ‘dragged through hell’ in the aftermath of his actions in 1999.

The majority of the pictures were ‘at the most serious end of the scale of gravity.

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Some featured sado-masochistic scenes and others involving intercourse between youngsters and adults.

Dr Dalton said it brought a highly respected doctor to ‘the threshold of erasure.

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But after reading a number of reports, he said the committee believed suspension was an appropriate penalty.

Alan Jenkins, defending, said the offending behaviour stopped ‘a long time before Catterall’s arrest’ and the matter had returned ‘to haunt him.

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Catterall was told he must face another committee hearing next year before being allowed back into practice.

ends