A senior children’s doctor faces being struck off after a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old schoolgirl he met online, a tribunal heard.
Consultant radiologist Jonathan Bainbridge, 40, ended up in contact with the girl after sending an explicit picture of himself on the messaging site Kik, it was said.
He then left his wife at home and travelled almost 200 miles (321 kms) to meet her, the hearing was told. Bainbridge bought cigarettes for the youngster then allegedly engaged in a sex act with her in his car after a rendezvous at a bus stop.
He was subsequently arrested after the unnamed girl told social workers.
Carlo Breen, lawyer for the General Medical Council, said: ‘The doctor’s behaviour has been quite frankly disgraceful.’
Bainbridge, who earned £100,000 a year as paediatric hospital consultant at the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board at Carleon, near Newport, South Wales, admitted the encounter but insisted the girl had told him she was 16, the tribunal was told.
Last year, the doctor, from Cardiff was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and complete 250 hours’ unpaid work after a criminal court case.
A Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester was told the youngster was from a ‘troubled background’ and deemed at risk of exploitation from older men.
The incident took place in March 2017 after Bainbridge – whose wife was pregnant with her third child – made contact with her over a seven-day period on Kik, using the pseudonym ‘Cardiff Boy JD’.
Mr Breen said: ‘During the conversation that took place on the messenger app, the child told Dr Bainbridge she was 16 and he replied he was 37 years of age.
‘He sent a live picture of himself that identified his face and further messages were exchanged. They discussed meeting… and the fact she was in school, that she was lonely and in care.’
The tribunal heard the pair exchanged numbers and sent each other indecent images before meeting.
Bainbridge admitted two counts of possession of indecent photographs of a child at Cardiff Crown Court last year. He faced no charge in relation to sexual activity with an underage girl because the court heard he had a ‘reasonable belief’ she was 16 years old. The law on indecent pictures applies to under 18s.
He was suspended following his arrest and moved out of the family home. He said he was unable to attend the birth of his third child due to the nature of the charges.
Bainbridge told the tribunal in a statement his conduct was a ‘catastrophic error of judgement’. The hearing continues.