Disgraced GP caught with indecent images of children is struck off medical register

Earlier this week, a panel of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) determined that Alan Campbell’s fitness to work as a doctor had been impaired by reason of his criminal convictions.

Today (Friday), the tribunal announced they agreed with submissions made on behalf of the General Medical Council that erasing the 40-year-old from the register as a doctor, is the only appropriate and proportionate sanction.

Chairperson Rachel Jones announced that Campbell’s behaviour was both “incompatible with continued registration at this point in time” and “so significant that [he] should not be allowed to practise”.

“The only proportionate sanction in this case is erasure from the medical register,” she told the Tribunal, adding that it would take effect as soon as the order is served on Campbell.

In June last year at Downpatrick Crown Court, Campbell, from Silverbrook Park in Newbuildings, entered guilty pleas to 11 charges relating to the possession and making of indecent images of children on dates between 17 October 2014 and 13 January 2022.

The particulars of the offences disclose that Campbell, who qualified as a GP in 2014 and who at one time was a trustee of Glendermott Church, had images and videos in categories A, B and C.

The court heard that officers from the PSNI Child Internet Protection Team attended the defendant’s former home in North Down where, acting under a search warrant, they seized six devices.

During his sentencing remarks, Judge Geoffrey Miller KC described how the examinations uncovered a total of 211 indecent images and videos, including 50 assessed at Level A, 56 at level B and the rest were classed at level C.

Judge Miller said there were aggravating features attached to the offending, including the length of time over which the offences were committed and the fact that Campbell had been working as a GP until he was arrested.

The court heard that while the investigation was ongoing, Campbell was allowed to keep working as a doctor, having telephone consultations with adult patients.

Addressing Campbell directly, Judge Miller told him given his pleas, the relatively small number of images and his clear record, he would impose a combination order of two years on probation, along with 75 hours of community service.

During the MPTS hearing Adam Lodge, counsel for the GMC, had submitted that because of the harm the offending had caused, the potential risk which Campbell poses and his lack of insight, that he should be erased from the register as a doctor.

He said one sanction was to suspend Campbell’s licence for a year but submitted that, given the seriousness of Dr Campbell’s convictions, the risk of repetition, the limited insight and lack of remediation, “any lesser sanction than erasure would put the public at risk of harm and undermine public confidence.”

In announcing the sanction today, the MPT chair said Campbell’s Crown Court case “involved a serious criminal conviction, possessing and downloading child sex abuse materials.”

She said the panel was “troubled by the doctor’s refusal to accept the ‘root cause’ of his offending, namely a sexual interest in children” and that he poses “a significant risk of repetition of the wrongdoing.”

Mrs Jones said that the sentence handed out by the Crown Court “was a strong indication that his offending was incompatible with continued registration.”

She added that if the panel opted to impose a 12-month suspension, in theory Campbell could return to practice with no restrictions, “even though he would still be subject to his criminal sentence.”

The panel decided that given the “overarching objective of protecting the public, the nature of the offending and the high current and ongoing risk to public protection,” the only appropriate outcome and sanction was erasing Campbell from the medical register.