Health and Care Professions Council determination — substantive hearing
HCPTS panel strikes off Peter Burningham over child-image convictions
An HCPTS panel struck paramedic Peter J Burningham off the register after finding his fitness to practise impaired following five convictions concerning indecent images of children.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 16 October 2025 · Updated 23 September 2026
Erasure (struck off the register)
Data last checked: 23 September 2026Report a correction
What does “struck off the register” mean?
The regulator directed removal from the register in this decision. The decision explains when the direction takes effect and any appeal provisions. Check the official register for the practitioner's current registration status.
Concerning Peter J Burningham, paramedic (Health and Care Professions Council PA21044).
Decision date: 16 October 2025 · Hearing started 16 October 2025
In plain English
The HCPTS panel found that paramedic Peter J Burningham's fitness to practise was impaired after five convictions for distributing and making indecent images of children. It found current impairment on personal and public grounds, citing limited insight, no evidence of rehabilitation and risks to children and public confidence. The panel ordered his name struck from the register and imposed an 18-month interim suspension for the appeal period.
Charges
On 16 April 2024 at Reading Crown Court, the Registrant was convicted of two counts of distributing indecent photographs of children and three counts of making indecent photographs of children. It was alleged that his fitness to practise was impaired by reason of the convictions.
Findings
The Panel found the fact of the five convictions and the statutory ground of conviction proved. It found the Registrant's fitness to practise currently impaired on both personal and public components, and decided that his conduct was incompatible with continued registration. It ordered his name struck from the Register. It also imposed an interim suspension order for the appeal period, subject to a maximum of 18 months.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
that the Registrant had a previously unblemished career and he had expressed remorse and pleaded guilty to the offences.
Aggravating factors
the nature of the images that the Registrant had not only viewed but distributed. These were said to involve moving images of abuse of very young children who were distressed and in pain. Children are a particularly vulnerable population, and some children in the images had been as young as two years old. The Panel considered there had been a lack of remediation and insight, with the Registrant continuing to minimise his responsibility for the conduct and there was a failure to appreciate the impact of his conduct on his victims.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Health and Care Professions Council determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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