Peter Burningham, 40, from Reading, was a senior paramedic in London when between 2020 and 2022 he trawled the internet for ‘abhorrent’ child abuse images.
While living an outwardly respectable life, Burningham harboured extreme fantasies, downloading hundreds of images depicting the abuse of children – some younger than a year old.
In an online exchange he suggested to another paedophile that they take up work at a maternity ward so they could abuse the babies there.
In another exchange, Burningham suggested gaining access to children by volunteering at Romanian orphanages.
He was jailed last year for two years and four months after being convicted of two counts of distributing indecent videos of children and three counts of making indecent images in Categories A, B and C – the three most serious categories.
On Thursday, October 16, the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) ruled Burningham should be struck off.
Burningham blamed drug use, telling the tribunal: “I have served my time in prison and am now trying to rebuild a life for myself free of drugs while seeking therapy and support for my offending/addictions.
“I’m truly sorry for ending up on drugs and committing these awful crimes, which betrayed my own principles and values.
“There is no excuse for what I did but I do believe I would never have acted out of character and so terribly without the influence of drugs.
“I have been able to maintain abstinent from my drug addiction to crystal methamphetamine since my arrest and will never return to the dark path it led me down.”
But the tribunal panel said it had no evidence to support his assertions.
It also found that he had attempted to minimise his responsibility by suggesting his drug addiction caused his behaviour.
In a report published after the hearing it was stated: “The panel noted the nature of the images that the registrant had not only viewed but distributed.
“These were said to involve moving images of abuse of very young children who were distressed and in pain.
“Children are a particularly vulnerable population, and some children in the images had been as young as two years old.
“The panel considered there had been a lack of remediation and insight, with the registrant continuing to minimise his responsibility for the conduct and there was a failure to appreciate the impact of his conduct on his victims.”
Burningham will be banned from the profession indefinitely.
When he was sentenced last year, Judge Alan Blake told him: “Despite your protestations, it seems to me, from the material available on your devices, that there was some sexual interest in children.”
“We’re dealing here with very young children, some aged as young as one to three.
“They are the most abhorrent images. They are images of children whose lives are physically and mentally ruined by sustained abuse.”
“In some of those images, there is evidence of discernible pain or distress.”
Pauline Cranmer, chief paramedic at the LAS, said: “We absolutely condemn the criminal behaviour of Mr Burningham.
“While Mr Burningham’s criminal charges relate to his behaviour outside of work and did not involve our patients, he was dismissed from our service as soon as his criminality came to light and was referred to the relevant regulatory body.”
