A Maltese doctor who had been working at Liverpool’s Aintree Hospital, and who was convicted last June of taking indecent images of children, was banned from the profession in the UK this week after the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in Manchester took the decision to strike him from the medical register.
Dr David Scerri, who is 48 and who worked as a gastroenterologist at the hospital until his arrest, appeared before a medical tribunal on Thursday, after having been convicted at Manchester Crown Court on six counts of taking indecent photographs of a child. He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years and given a three-year community service order.
A report from the MPTS tribunal panel said: “This was a serious offence of a sexual nature involving exploitation of a child.
“Through that behaviour, Dr Scerri has damaged the public’s trust and confidence in the profession. The Panel has found that his actions constituted a planned, sexually-motivated venture to take photographs of young females between the ages of 12 and 20 for his later viewing. This was criminal behaviour of a predatory nature and, as such, fundamentally incompatible with continued registration as a doctor.
“The Panel is of the opinion that the public would expect no lesser sanction than erasure in such a case. In order to protect patients and restore public confidence and trust in the profession, the Panel has therefore determined that Dr Scerri’s name should be erased from the Medical Register.”
Dr Scerri, of Wythenshawe, Manchester, qualified as a doctor in Malta in 1991 and registered to practise in Britain in 2003, before becoming a gastroenterology specialist in 2009.
A spokesman for Aintree Hospital (photo) said: “Dr Scerri is no longer employed by the Trust. Immediately after Greater Manchester Police told the Trust that Dr Scerri had been arrested in July 2012, the Trust took steps to stop him from working in the hospital.
“We also informed the General Medical Council of the situation. The charges were unrelated to any aspect of Dr Scerri’s role in the hospital.”