Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service determination — substantive hearing
MPTS tribunal imposes conditions on Dr David Cook over obscene-article conviction
A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel has imposed conditions for 24 months on Dr David Cook after finding his conviction over online conversations about sexual activity with a child amounted to serious misconduct, while accepting it was not sexually motivated and was caused by ill health.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 5 June 2026 · Updated 7 July 2026
Conditions on practice (practising with restrictions) — 2 years
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Conditions of practice allow the practitioner to keep working but only subject to specific restrictions — for example, supervision, limits on certain procedures, or required reporting to the regulator.
Concerning David Cook, doctor (General Medical Council 4106292).
Decision date: 5 June 2026 · Hearing started 8 September 2025 and ended 5 June 2026
In plain English
The MPTS tribunal found that Dr David Cook, a respiratory consultant, engaged in depraved online conversations referring to sexual activity involving children between 2020 and 2021, for which he was convicted of publishing and attempting to publish an obscene article. The tribunal found the conduct was not sexually motivated and was directly caused by ill health at the time, but that it amounted to serious misconduct and his fitness to practise was impaired. It imposed conditions on his registration for 24 months.
Charges
The allegation arose from Dr Cook's conviction on 20 September 2022 at Birmingham Crown Court, for which he received a 12-month conditional discharge, for attempting to publish and publishing an obscene article contrary to the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 and the Obscene Publications Act 1959, relating to online conversations about sexual activity with a child. Between November 2020 and May 2021 he engaged in conversations on social media platforms with an undercover police officer and two other users about sexual activity involving children, which the GMC alleged amounted to inciting abuse of a child or, in the alternative, engaging in role play involving abuse of a child, and was sexually motivated. Dr Cook admitted the conviction and the content of the conversations and that they amounted to role play involving abuse of a child, but the alleged sexual motivation was disputed.
Findings
The tribunal found the conviction and the admitted conversations proved. It found the 'inciting abuse of a child' allegation had no case to answer and, having heard expert evidence, that the conduct was not sexually motivated, accepting that Dr Cook had no sexual interest in children and that his behaviour was directly caused by ill health at the time and was out of character. The tribunal nonetheless found the conduct - repeated, depraved online conversations of a sexual nature referring to children over a six-month period - amounted to serious professional misconduct and a serious departure from Good Medical Practice, and that his fitness to practise was impaired on all three limbs of the overarching objective. Balancing the seriousness against his good insight, extensive remediation and the causal link to his health, the tribunal imposed conditions on his registration for 24 months, with an immediate order of conditions and a review hearing directed, finding that erasure and suspension would be disproportionate.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
The tribunal found that over five years Dr Cook had developed considerable, meaningful insight into his misconduct; recognised the depravity of the messages at an early stage; engaged with appropriate agencies and undertaken remedial steps and relevant CPD; that his misconduct occurred at a time of ill health and significant work stress compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic as a respiratory physician; that he had repeatedly apologised and shown genuine remorse; that he had done all he could to remediate; and that he had no previous regulatory history and had not repeated the behaviour.
Aggravating factors
The tribunal found that Dr Cook's misconduct spanned a six-month period, during which he repeatedly initiated and responded to online conversations which were sexual in nature and depraved and included references to children.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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