Disgraced NHS doctor, 28, who groomed ’13-year-old girl’ on Kik and sent her explicit photos is struck off after blaming his actions on working long hours during Covid pandemic
- Junior doctor James Farthing, 28, had tried to groom ’13-year-old girl’ online
- Farthing is married and worked for the NHS in Stockport used Kik messenger
- He asked to see pictures of ‘Beth’ – who was an undercover police officer
- He has now been struck off and previously got a suspended prison sentence
James Farthing (pictured outside court last September), 28, was struck off as a doctor after grooming a ‘girl, 13’
A doctor who attempted to groom a ’13-year-old girl’ online has been struck off.
James Farthing, 28, contacted the ‘teenager’ – who was actually an undercover police officer – using the username ‘olderc***’ on the messaging service Kik, as well as Facebook.
The married junior doctor, who worked for the NHS in Stockport, asked if he could see photos of her body and shared images of his penis.
He was convicted of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child in September 2021 but avoided jail by claiming his actions were due to working long hours during the Covid pandemic.
Farthing appeared before a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing in Manchester, with the panel deciding to erase him from the medical register.
Minshull Crown Court heard how he posed as a 23-year-old man from Leeds when he contacted a ‘girl’ called Beth on Kik.
Farthing asked ‘Beth’ if she was into ‘older guys’ and if she would send him a picture.
‘Beth’ told him: ‘I’m 13, by the way.’ Farthing replied: ‘Cool. Are you down for role play or sex?’
He asked to see her body and offered to show her his penis. The ‘girl’ said she was worried about sending a photograph.
Farthing reassured her that if she didn’t include her face, it ‘should be fine’.
He told the ‘girl’ that he’d spoken to a ‘few girls that like older men’.
Farthing contacted the ‘teenager’ – who was actually an undercover police officer – using the username ‘olderc***’ on the messaging service Kik (file photo of the app)
Simon Gurney, defending, said Farthing (pictured), who has no previous convictions, was ‘deeply ashamed and remorseful for his behaviour’
The sexual conversation continued and Farthing sent a photo of his penis, telling ‘Beth’, in fact an undercover police officer: ‘I really want to touch your body and see what you look like naked.’
When he was arrested he told officers he was ‘ashamed’ and had tried to stop but ‘gave in to sexual pleasure’.
Simon Gurney, defending, said the doctor had been juggling long working hours during the pandemic, his wife’s health and his training.
He’d had ’emotional struggles’ and had also been watching porn and smoking cannabis, he said, but was ‘deeply ashamed and remorseful’ of his behaviour.
The court heard staff and patients ‘all expressed shock’ after Farthing was arrested as they thought he had a good ‘moral compass’.
Judge Tina Landale sentenced him to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and also handed him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.
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