An Essex doctor has been struck from the medical register after he tried to meet what he thought were teenagers for sex in a hotel room - only to be caught by undercover police and paedophile hunter groups. Dr Shailendra Kurmi has been banned from practicing medicine after previously being jailed for the attempted sexual activity with children.
Dr Kurmi, who was based in Chelmsford, had made contact with the first "victim" - who was actually an adult undercover - between September 6 and 10 last year, via an online chat site. The "girl" stated she was 13, but despite this the doctor then sent sexually explicit messages to her.
The messages moved to WhatsApp where they continued, along with "moving images of a sexual nature" which Dr Kurmi sent to the girl. He also sent pictures of himself to the profile and then suggested they meet up in a hotel in Harlow to carry out the sexual actions he had been describing.
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On September 10, he arranged to meet the girl at the hotel, where he said they should go in separately to "avoid arousing suspicion". However, when he arrived there, the activist group Broken Dreams, who were behind the profile, confronted him. The police were then called and Dr Kurmi was arrested.
Between September 5 and 11 in the same year, Dr Kurmi also contacted a profile purporting to be a 12-year-old girl and then sent sexualised images on Snapchat to her. He wanted to meet later that week but this never took place, and the profile declined to video chat with him.
Additionally, between September 4 and 8, Dr Kurmi made contact with someone he believed was an 11-year-old girl, but was in fact an undercover police officer. Dr Kurmi asked the profile about her sexual experiences and asked for pictures of her, and additionally said they should meet in a hotel, where she should refer to him as her "step-dad", but this meeting again never took place.
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A hearing under the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service took place last month and found that Dr Kurmi had been jailed for four years for the offences in November last year, and was also made to sign the Sex Offenders' Register. In light of this, the panel found he had committed misconduct and his fitness to practice was impaired.
They deemed his actions were "very serious" and that he should be immediately erased from the medical register in the UK. Panel chair Julia Oakford said: "The Tribunal has received no evidence that Dr Kurmi has insight into his conduct or that he taken steps to remediate his actions and that remediation may even be impossible in these circumstances.
"The Tribunal also reminded itself that Dr Kurmi has not engaged with these proceedings and it was not satisfied that Dr Kurmi’s offending behaviour that led to his imprisonment and these proceedings, is unlikely to be repeated."
She added: "The Tribunal determined that given the seriousness of its findings and having found that the serious nature of Dr Kurmi’s offences makes him fundamentally incompatible with continued registration, an immediate order of suspension is necessary to protect the public, is in the public interest and is required to uphold public confidence in the profession."
