AN ANGUS mental health nurse has been struck off after measuring his genitals with a ruler in front of a girl.
Robert Morrison (50), from Montrose, appeared at Arbroath Sheriff Court in March and admitted lewd and libidinous practices and behaviour towards a girl, and taking indecent photographs of her between 2001 and 2006.
He was sentenced to three years’probation, ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work and placed on the sex offenders register for three years.
An interim suspension was put in place to prevent him working as a nurse after the charges came to light. At a meeting of the Nursing and Midwifery Council in London last week he was formally struck off.
The council said his behaviour was “wholly unacceptable and damaged public confidence in the nursing profession”.
Morrison, who worked as a nurse at Sunnyside Royal Hospital at Hillside, near Montrose, from 2008, did not make a written submission to the hearing.
At court earlier this year, depute fiscal Hazel Anderson described how Morrison had measured his genitals in front of the girl, then aged between 12 and 16, stating that he “seemed to find it amusing”.
The girl said she was shocked and described the experience as “minging”.
On two further occasions Morrison exposed himself to the girl while wearing a loosely-tied dressing gown. On one occasion the girl was with a female friend.
Morrison took indecent photographs of the girl when she was 17. She later said she was not comfortable with the pictures being taken. Four images were found on a camera during a police search in 2009.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council said Morrison’s behaviour had “brought the nursing profession into disrepute”.
The report stated: “The panel determined that Mr Morrison’s convictions for sexual offences were serious breaches of the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code.
“There is no evidence before the panel that Mr Morrison has acknowledged the seriousness of his convictions or of any insight into his behaviour.
“The panel concluded that Mr Morrison has breached a fundamental tenet of the profession.
“By his acting as he did Mr Morrison’s integrity, in the broadest sense, can no longer be relied upon.”
It added: “The panel considers that Mr Morrison’s convictions are such that the public interest demands the sanction of a striking off order and that any lesser sanction would not be sufficient to maintain public confidence in the nursing profession and the council.”
A spokesman for NHS Tayside said: “It would be inappropriate for us to comment other than to say he no longer works for NHS Tayside.”
rmclaren@thecourier.co.uk