A PARAMEDIC who was jailed for downloading almost 1,000 indecent images and videos of children has been prevented from working as a paramedic.

Steven Gill who was a registered paramedic employed as a nurse by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was found guilty of possessing and distributing almost a thousand indecent images of children in December 2018. The charges included 98 images showing the most serious abuse involving very young and vulnerable children.

Birmingham Crown Court was told Gill had been accessing the images and videos for two years on personal devices using several different email addresses.

As a result he was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, placed on the Sex Offender Register for 10 years and was made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years.

Now Gill has been struck off the paramedic's register held by The Health and Care Professions Council.

The move follows Gill's arrest in August 2017 on suspicion of possessing and distributing indecent images of children and subsequent self-referral to the The Health and Care Professions Council in November.

At the time he was employed as a nurse by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and told the council he had been taking occasional work as a self-employed ‘event’ paramedic.

Gill pleaded not guilty to possessing and distributing indecent images of children when he appeared at court and maintained his innocence at the Health and Care Professions Council's tribunal in February this year.

Gill told the tribunal he was “ashamed and embarrassed to have been involved.” and said his conviction was a “gross and inexplicable departure from character.”

He said he had “inadvertently” downloaded the images and his mistake was not reporting the images as soon as he had encountered them.

Gill told the panel that whilst he accepted he could never be a paramedic again he would “always wear green” in his heart.

An interim suspension order was put in place for 18 months from May 8 to allow an appeal to be lodged.