John Wadeson, 31, an A&E nurse who helped victims of the Manchester Arena bombing, has been struck off after being caught with sickening videos
An A&E nurse who helped victims of the Manchester Arena bombing has been struck off after being caught with child sex abuse videos.
John Wadeson, 31, worked at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool when he was found with more than 150 images and 10 videos of child pornography after police raided his house in June 2020.
He managed to avoid jail time last year due to his 'good character', after being handed an eight-month sentence suspended for 12 months at Liverpool Crown Court.
In the raid officers seized a Lenovo computer, an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy mobile phone, which collectively stored a catalogue of indecent images and videos of young children.
Wadeson initially told police he had 'no idea' the images were on his devices, but later confessed to knowing they were on his phone but denied viewing them.
Wadeson had previously helped victims of the bombing at Manchester Arena in 2017 while on placement at Royal Bolton Hospital.
The paedophile was told to complete a 60-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement, including a Horizon sex offenders treatment programme, and pay £500 court costs.
Wadeson was also added onto the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and told he must comply with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years.
He had been employed as a registered nurse since September 2017 but was suspended in June 2020 after Merseyside Police informed his employer they had arrested him.
Royal Bolton Hospital where Wadeson helped to treat victims of the Manchester Arena bombing
The arrest was made on suspicion of uploading a category B indecent image of a child to the internet.
On his devices they found 56 Category A indecent images showing children that were as young as newborn - the most serious category showing child rape - with 11 of the media being videos.
There were 35 Category B images - including eight videos - involving boys just four to six-years-old.
A further 51 Category C photos included pictures of boys aged as young as three to four.
Police also found 35 extreme porn images, including two videos, and 11 prohibited - cartoon - images of children.
He also possessed extreme pornographic images portraying an act of intercourse or oral sex with a dead or alive animal.
The nurse confessed he knew there were indecent images on the phone, but said 'he couldn't remember viewing them'.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) on Tuesday published details detailing how they decided to remove Wadeson from the care register last week.
They said: 'Wadeson's actions in making, possessing and distributing indecent images of children demonstrates a fundamental breach of trust and clearly damages the reputation of, and undermines trust and confidence in the nursing profession.
'Integrity should be considered to be the bedrock of any nurse's career and the criminal conviction undermines the good reputation of the profession.
'Wadeson has not made any attempt to remediate and there remains a high risk of repetition.
'The panel concluded that nothing short of a striking-off order would be sufficient in this case.'
The Manchester Arena attack in May 2017 killed 22 victims and hospitlised more than 100 people
Ben Berkson, defending, told Judge Andrew Menary: 'This course of conduct is described as shocking and out of character by those closest to him and by the defendant himself.
He claimed that Wadeson struggled with his mental health when he was younger and in the past was diagnosed with psychosis.
The lawyer added: 'A particularly dark point as a child was the death of his foster brother, which has had a profound impact on this defendant.
'As a gay man he experienced bullying at school generally and memek had difficulty with his sexuality growing up, due to fear of homophobic abuse.
'Notwithstanding those difficulties, he qualified as a nurse in 2017 and began working in the A&E department at Aintree hospital.
'But immediately prior to that he was part of a nursing training placement at Bolton hospital.
As part of that he actually helped the victims of the Manchester bombing.'
Wadeson was supported by his husband, who provided a character reference.