Nurse struck off over child porn

A Bay of Plenty nurse's registration has been cancelled after he admitted having video footage showing sexual acts involving children as young as 6.

The two videos were found in S Derecourt's Rotorua home in 2001. At the time of the offending, Derecourt was working at Lakelands Hospital.

In a decision released yesterday, the New Zealand Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal said Derecourt had been found guilty of professional misconduct and his registration as a nurse cancelled.

The majority of tribunal members recommended he did not reapply for registration for six months.

Before he applied he must take an examination and, if necessary, therapy to satisfy the Nursing Council he was a fit and proper person to be registered as a nurse.

If Derecourt was re-registered the council should assess his area of practice to ensure potentially vulnerable patients were not unreasonably exposed to him.

In late 2001 Derecourt was charged with four offences relating to the material found at his home. He admitted the charges and was fined $750 for each offence.

Derecourt had told a Department of Internal Affairs inspector that he knew child sex was illegal but had kept a video because he liked the bondage and discipline in it.

"The material found in Derecourt's possession was highly offensive, degrading and injurious to children. It is totally unacceptable for any health professional to possess material of the kind found in Derecourt's home in July 2001," the tribunal said.

In considering the penalty it had taken into account the fact that Derecourt had not previously offended, and had 25 years' experience as a nurse without being the subject of any previous disciplinary action.

Other factors were that the offending happened four years ago, Derecourt had suffered grief and depression as a result of being charged, was remorseful and genuinely sorry, and references attested to his generally good character.

The Nursing Council had been alerted to Derecourt's convictions last November by a department officer during inquiries about another nurse who had been sentenced to prison for possessing objectionable material, the tribunal said.

Derecourt's counsel had told the tribunal that Derecourt had moved to Tauranga since the offending. He had worked in a private facility before taking a break from nursing to work in a restaurant but did want to resume practising as a nurse.

- NZPA