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A Belfast doctor who was convicted of sex offences has been erased from the medical register by a medical tribunal.

Andrew Gibson, from Marcus Ward Street in the city, has convictions for paying for sex and possessing an indecent photograph of children.

The General Medical Council referred Mr Gibson to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS).

The tribunal determined that his fitness to practise is impaired by reason of his convictions.

It also imposed an immediate order of suspension to cover the 28-day appeal period.

The 40-year-old studied medicine at Queen's University, Belfast, from where he qualified as a doctor in 2012.

On 7 December 2023, Gibson was convicted of obtaining sexual services from another person in exchange for payment and being in possession of an indecent photograph of children and two extreme pornographic images.

He was convicted at Laganside Magistrates' Court of paying for sex on dates between 15 and 18 June 2021, and again on 19 July of that year.

He was sentenced to a Probation Order for eighteen months and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

'Very serious matters'

The PSNI wrote to the General Medical Council (GMC) in April 2022 to inform it of the allegations against Gibson.

The doctor's licence to practise medicine has been suspended since 31 August 2023, according to the GMC website.

The GMC is the independent regulator of doctors in the UK.

It referred Gibson's case to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) for it to decide if he should face sanctions.

The three-day tribunal opened on Wednesday, but Gibson did not attend, and he was not legally represented.

The tribunal concluded that "suspension would be inappropriate and insufficient to mark the seriousness of Dr Gibson's behaviour, protect the public, uphold proper standards of conduct and behaviour and maintain public confidence in the medical profession", said Mrs Remi Alabi, MPTS tribunal chair.

She described Gibson's convictions as "very serious matters" and said his actions "breached both fundamental tenets of the medical profession and individual paragraphs of good manufacturing practices (GMP)."

Had 'not engaged'

The tribunal chair said Gibson did not provide any evidence to "demonstrate that he has attempted to address the concerns identified in this case or the root cause of his behaviour".

She said, "remediation in this case is likely to be particularly difficult in light of the nature of the offences under consideration".

Mrs Alabi said Gibson had not "demonstrated an understanding of the impact of his actions on patients, colleagues, the medical profession, the wider public interest or public confidence in the medical profession" and had "not engaged" with his regulator or these proceedings.

It was noted that, in the pre-sentence report prepared for his criminal case, Gibson was assessed by probation services as "posing a medium risk of reoffending in a two-year period".

In the circumstances of this case, the tribunal considered that the "only proportionate and appropriate sanction" is one of erasure.

The tribunal chair said it considered that Gibson's convictions, in particular those relating to possession of one class C indecent image of children and two images of extreme pornography, are "incompatible with continued registration as a doctor".