A nurse who abused a young boy and downloaded child pornography has been struck off to ‘protect the public’.

Diosdado Manalo, 52, confessed to molesting the six-year-old after police discovered he had been downloading indecent images of children following a raid on his Hythe Road, Ashford, home in July 2013.

When arrested he was working as a staff nurse at Ashford’s William Harvey Hospital.

He was jailed for four years and nine months at Canterbury Crown Court last October, after admitting causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and sexual assault.

He also pleaded guilty to five counts of possessing, and three of making, indecent images of children.

Manalo, originally from the Philippines, was suspended after his arrest and later resigned from the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust.

He has now also been struck off the nursing register following a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) hearing in London.

After his arrest he initially refused to answer any questions but later confessed to accessing the sickening images.

He also told officers he had sexually abused a young boy, unconnected to his nursing career, while living in Cambridgeshire in 2008.

An NMC panel decided his conviction was fundamentally incompatible with him continuing to be a registered nurse, saying: “As well as the making and possessing of indecent images, the conviction included abuse of a child. All these offences greatly undermine patients’ and the public’s trust in the profession.”