Paediatric nurse who said he’d ‘kill anyone who abused a child’ caught with 108 indecent images
A paediatric nurse who worked in paediatric units was caught with more than 100 indecent images and videos of children suffering sexual abuse, including the most serious, Category A.
David Shields was convicted of downloading 108 images and videos of children while he was employed as a nurse for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in Lanarkshire. He was struck off the nursing register following a jury trial.
Months before his conviction at Airdrie Sheriff Court he told nursing regulators he would, “mutilate and kill anyone he caught abusing a child.”
An inquiry by the Nursing and Midwifery Council was told Shields moved from Scotland to England after the charges came to light and that the offences happened, “over a considerable period of time”. A fifth of the images were in the most serious category.
He started his career in 1974 at Garloch Hospital in Glasgow, before moving to Victoria Hospital in Blackpool, where he worked in paediatric units.
The nurse later moved to Saudi Arabia, where he spent a number of years, again working with children. He returned to the UK in 2000 with his family and worked as an agency nurse, before taking up a nursing role with the MOD.
He was convicted on March 18 by a jury of possessing indecent images and videos of children.
Shields was not present for a hearing by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which concluded last week.
In a statement the NMC said: “Mr Shields’ criminal convictions are so serious and at odds with the role of a registered nurse that it would not be appropriate to allow him to remain on the register.”