A doctor who molested female patients, including children, and took indecent photographs during intimate examinations has been struck off the medical register.

GP Barend Delport subjected his victims - one aged just one - to inappropriate medical inspections at the practice where he worked in Swanley.

More than 5,500 indecent photographs of children, including some of his young patients, were found among 500,000 pornographic and voyeurism images found at his former home in Eynsford. Almost 900 of these he had taken himself.

The paedophile medic was jailed for six years last September after admitting 26 offences at Maidstone Crown Court.

His crimes included sexual assaults on a victim younger than two, while the oldest was in her 60s. They took place between 2003 and 2012.

Judge Philip Statman had told Delport it was "difficult to imagine a graver breach of trust than has occurred in this case".

Now Delport, who practised at The Oaks Surgery, in Swanley, has been struck off the medical register after a hearing at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester.

He was not present or legally represented at the fitness to practise hearing.

Tribunal panel chairman Professor Jack Crane said: "The panel is of the view that Dr Delport's offences are particularly serious due to their sexual nature and their repetition over a prolonged period of time.

"The acts that Dr Delport committed were deliberate and a complete abuse of his position as a doctor and some involved the sexual assault of vulnerable patients. Such behaviour undoubtedly brings the medical profession into disrepute and is wholly unacceptable.

"The panel is of the view that his conviction is so serious as to be fundamentally incompatible with his continuing registration as a medical practitioner..." - Professor Jack Crane

"His actions seriously undermine public confidence in the medical profession.

"In this case Dr Delport's conviction of a number of offences including sexual assault and the making and possessing of indecent photographs of children is particularly serious.

"In view of this the panel considers that a period of suspension is neither sufficient nor proportionate.

"The panel is of the view that his conviction is so serious as to be fundamentally incompatible with his continuing registration as a medical practitioner.

"For these reasons, the panel has determined that erasure is the only proportionate sanction to protect patients and maintain public confidence in the profession."

Delport, formerly of Eynsford, was jailed for six years last September 9, placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely and made subject to a 10-year sexual offences prevention order.

He was convicted of offences including indecent assault, three counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13 and sexual activity with a child under 16. All victims were female.

The GP also admitted two counts of possession of an indecent photograph of a child, five counts of making indecent photographs of children and 12 counts of taking indecent photographs of a child.

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