Anthony Bland, GP with 26,000 child abuse images, is struck off

Anthony Bland admitted to having a “recurring need” to watch child sex abuse
Anthony Bland admitted to having a “recurring need” to watch child sex abuse
ALAMY

A family doctor has been struck off after building a collection of more than 26,000 child abuse images and posing as a teenage girl online to send explicit messages to a 16-year-old.

Anthony Bland, a GP from Chester and senior figure in the local NHS, admitted to having a “recurring need” to watch child sex abuse, a court was told. The police raided his family home in January 2017 and found child abuse images and videos collected over 11 years on five computer devices.

Bland, 63, was arrested and suspended from Fountains Medical Practice in Chester. Officers discovered a collection of 26,691 images and films related to children aged between 6 and 15. It included 45 of the most serious category, of which 11 were