A MARRIED children's doctor who travelled 200 miles to meet a 15-year old schoolgirl for sex after searching mobile app Kik to find someone to have an affair with has been struck off.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board consultant radiologist Jonathan Bainbridge left his pregnant wife at home in south Wales to travel to north Wales after meeting the girl online.

Bainbridge, who was a £100,000-a-year paediatric consultant at the Caerleon-based board, then had sex with the girl in his car after parking at a bus stop.

MORE NEWS

The teenager later told social workers and Bainbridge was arrested. He was not prosecuted for having sex with the girl because she told him she was 16 during their chatroom conversations, but he admitted child abuse image offences and was given an 18-month community order.

The 40-year-old, of Cardiff, whose court case heard he had lost his family over the crimes, was struck off after a Medical Practitioners Tribunal hearing in Manchester.

The tribunal heard his victim had a 'troubled background' and had carers to help her as she was at risk of sexual exploitation from older men.

The incident took place in 2017 after Bainbridge made contact her over a seven-day period on Kik using the pseudonym 'Cardiff Boy JD' and including a telephone number linked to his work.

The girl told the doctor she was 'lonely', was still in school, and that she was under local authority care.

Bainbridge persuaded the schoolgirl to send him an explicit video and a picture of her breasts.

The disgraced doctor was spared a jail sentence last November after Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard how his chatroom addiction left him a 'broken man'.

He lost his £100,000-a-year-job, his £400,000 home was put up for sale and his pregnant wife left him.

Social workers had to be present when his wife gave birth to their baby daughter while he was on bail.

After meeting the underage girl online, he asked her if she could send him 'naughty' photographs of herself.

Prosecutor Roger Griffiths said: 'He met the girl in the Kik Messenger chatroom and exchanged innocent pictures.

'The conversation became more sexualised and he asked her about the size of her breasts and whether she liked oral sex.

'She sent him another innocuous picture and he replied saying he was hoping for a naughty one.'

The teenager had asked him to promise not to 'hurt her or take her away' during their encounter.

Mr Griffiths said: 'They met up, he bought her cigarettes and sexual activity took place in his car.

Police were called after the girl told her carers she had had a sexual encounter with a man in March 2017.

'After he was arrested Bainbridge told police he believed the girl was of legal age.

'He said: "If I'd known she was 15 I would not have gone past the first conversation."'

The court heard Bainbridge was not prosecuted for having sex with the girl because she told him she was 16 during their chatroom conversations.

David Elias QC, mitigating, said: 'He has lost a great deal, his good character and no doubt his employment.

'He is having to sell the family home because he can't keep up with the mortgage payments.

'But that pales into insignificance compared to the impact this has had on his wife and two children.

'One hesitates to use the term a broken man but he has lost a great deal.’

The Recorder of Cardiff, Judge Eleri Rees QC, told Bainbridge: 'You have brought catastrophic circumstances upon yourself with the loss of your employment and break up of your family.

'It is shocking to find that someone highly respected in the medical profession and a mature man did not show greater judgement in this matter.'

As well as the 18-month community order, Bainbridge was told to carry out 250 hours unpaid work.

He was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for five years.