A RETIRED GP who showed a "sexual interest" in underage teenage girls on a messaging app has been struck off, following his conviction for possessing and distributing indecent images of children.

Mark Westbrook, of Gwent Road, Llantilio Pertholey, near Abergavenny, received a suspended jail term when he appeared at Newport Magistrates' Court last December, and has now been erased from the register at a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing.

The 59-year-old London University graduate, who qualified as a doctor in 1990, didn't attend the tribunal, responding to the notice of the May 6-7 disciplinary hearing by saying: "I have received the email. I do not intend to attend."

In his absence, the panel heard that in June 2025 Gwent Police had executed a warrant to search his home and seized four devices, including a mobile phone that contained indecent images.

Westbrook was subsequently convicted last November of three offences of making indecent photographs/pseudo-photographs of children.

The panel was told he had admitted charges involving making eight Category A – the most serious level – two Category B and two Category C indecent images and videos of children or a child.

In December, the retired GP was sentenced to a total of eight months in jail suspended for 24 months and made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years, and was also placed on the Sexual Offences Register.

The panel heard that Westbrook had downloaded the ‘Kik’ application – a free, username-based instant messaging app – in which he had "expressed his sexual interest in 14-year-old girls".

In January, he had emailed the General Medical Council to say: "I have come to my own conclusion that I am unfit to practice and expect to be removed from the GMC register."

Ian Brook, appearing for the GMC, said that given the serious nature of the allegations, in particular those of Category A, even a high-end suspension would be "insufficient" to mark the gravity of the proven allegations, and his behaviour was "incompatible" with remaining on the medical register due to the risk he posed to the public.

“Dr Westbrook’s behaviour related to the making of images and videos of underage children and was repeated over approximately a month, on multiple occasions... the seriousness is further aggravated by the nature of the material ,as there were 12 illegal images and videos that were found on the devices, and eight were category A, depicting the most serious abuse of children.”

Concluding that Westbrook "had demonstrated no insight nor provided any remediation", the tribunal ruled that his fitness to practise was impaired and he should be struck off.

The severity of his convictions was "such a significant departure from professional standards and conduct for the profession, that it was incompatible with continued registration," added the tribunal.

At his sentencing last December, the court heard the jail term was being suspended owing to his “early guilty pleas and previous clean character”.

He was also ordered to pay £272 in costs and a surcharge at that hearing.