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Paedophile was working in children's ward as nurse
Kiran Randhawa2 Mar 2009
A CONVICTED paedophile was arrested after being discovered working as a children's nurse in a London hospital, it was revealed today.
Lars Gellner, 37, got the job in Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, after arriving in Britain from Cambodia where he faced trial for sex attacks on boys aged between 12 and 19.
He was jailed for 10 years in his absence.
Gellner, a German, passed all security checks in the UK because he had no criminal record in Europe.
He was caught after a British Embassy official recognised his name from reports of a sex tourist who fled the Far East after applying for a visa for a 14-year-old Burmese boy he wanted to bring to the UK for "a holiday".
A police sex offender unit traced him to the children's ward at the hospital, where he was arrested on duty.
Court documents showed Gellner spent years preying on his victims and was suspected of raping a 10-year-old.
A children's rights charity said the case highlighted a shocking weakness in the system preventing international sex offenders coming to Britain.
Christine Beddoe, of End Child Prostitution and Trafficking UK, said: "This highlights the gaps and weaknesses of international sex offender management which puts children at risk here.
"If the Home Secretary is serious about getting tough on sex offenders who travel abroad she should be making all efforts to close loopholes and work more closely with counterparts in Europe and Asia."
Gellner was placed on the sex offenders' register after being discovered and arrested in October, and was remanded in custody for suspected fraud over his application for British nursing positions.
Prosecutors said he tried to get money dishonestly by failing to reveal he had been investigated by Cambodian police, but Judge Christopher Tyrer threw out the case at Aylesbury crown court because of a problem with documents from Cambodia.
Gellner is at a remand centre and could be deported on the grounds that he poses a serious risk to the public.
Detective Sergeant Sam Hayward said: "No blame should be attached to the hospitals. They did everything they could to carry out the criminal checks on him and they came back showing nothing."
North West London Hospitals NHS Trusts confirmed Gellner had worked a "small number of shifts" at the hospital.
Catalogue of blunders at Northwick Park
February 2009 - Operations are cancelled after a basement fire.
March 2008 - Zahra Ghaznavi, 28, dies after giving birth.
March 2006 - Six human guinea pigs in "Elephant Man" drugs trial almost die at clinical unit.
March 2005 - Nurse Ana Maria Denzo, 30, dies from blood loss after giving birth.
June 2004 - A 29-year-old dies from internal bleeding after giving birth.
May 2004 - Premalatha Jeevagan, 27, dies of a haemorrhage after giving birth.
December 2003 - Woman in her forties dies after a Caesarean.
August 2003 - Woman in her thirties with sickle cell gene and multiple sclerosis dies of heart attack.
June 2003 - Woman in her thirties died after induced labour.
June 2003 - Woman, in thirties dies from brain bleeding after birth.
April 2002 - A 24-year-old admitted with stomach pains and in care of junior doctor dies of complications.
April 2002 - Woman in her twenties dies from bleeding, causing heart attack after induced labour.
Reader views (1)
When will people realise that all these checks, ID cards, Databases etc that the government are obsessed with are only for innocent people because innocent people can be found and will pay. Anything else would be far too difficult for the spineless idiots that run this country.
- Sami, Monmouth, UK, 02/03/2009 13:45
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