Paramedic is struck off for voyeurism

A paramedic who stood on his car bonnet to photograph a colleague as she showered at their ambulance station was struck off yesterday.

William Chamberlain, 63, first took snaps of the unsuspecting woman at an ambulance station in Cornwall last December.

He confessed to "feeling sick" when he looked at the photos but was at it again less than two months later.

Chamberlain was banned from working as a paramedic after the Health and Care Professions Council panel decided to send a message to others that his conduct was wholly inappropriate.

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HCPC panel chair Jacki Pearce said: "Close patient contact is in the nature of a paramedic's work, and a practising paramedic can't pick and choose the category of patient they are required to treat. Furthermore, teamwork with colleagues is an essential part of a paramedic's work.

"In the judgement of this panel, the consequences of Mr Chamberlain's conviction and sentence is that he can't be permitted to remain practising."

Chamberlain's name will be struck off the professional register, and he will need to wait five years before apply for restoration.

Ms Pearce said a suspension could not be considered as Chamberlain will be on the Sex Offenders Register until March 2017.

An interim suspension order was also passed to stop Chamberlain working if he decides to appeal the panel's decision.

Chamberlain, of Liskeard, who has 32 years' experience as a paramedic, pleaded guilty at Bodmin Magistrates' Court on March 27 this year to one charge of voyeurism.

Magistrates sentenced him to 150 hours community service, fined him £85, and ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

He was discovered taking seedy photos on February 2, at the ambulance station, where he and the woman worked for South West Ambulance Trust.

She spotted a camera in the top corner of the shower room window and when she screamed, it "wobbled and disappeared from view".

Unsure what to do, the woman continued with her shower before confronting Chamberlain and reporting the incident to police.