Colchester mental health nurse viewed child abuse images

Anand Chinnathamby, of Ancaster Road, Ipswich, was deputy ward manager at a mental health unit in Colchester, Essex

A nurse who worked with vulnerable adults has been sentenced for viewing child abuse images.

Anand Chinnathamby, of Ancaster Road, Ipswich, was deputy ward manager at a mental health unit in Essex.

His home was raided by police in April 2022 after uploading 10 indecent images of children to his Gmail account.

At Ipswich Crown Court on Friday, he was given a suspended prison sentence after admitting three counts of making indecent images of children.

The court sentenced him to eight months imprisonment, suspended for 24 months.

He was also given a 50 day rehabilitation order and told to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

Chinnathamby has also been dismissed from his job at the care centre in Colchester.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) was notified about Chinnathamby after he was reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the US.

NCA officers arrested Chinnathamby at his home in Ipswich in April 2022 and seized his phone.

'Vulnerable people'

Despite a large amount of data having been deleted from the phone around the time his Gmail account was disabled, officers found file paths for more than 100 indecent images of children that had previously been saved on the device.

Evidence was also recovered that proved he had control of the offending account, and had named the email address linked to it after a ward he had previously worked on, the NCA said.

Daniel Waywell, of the NCA, said: "This case shows the important role that tech companies play in supporting the prosecution of those with a sexual interest in children.

"Chinnathamby was trusted to protect the welfare of vulnerable people while hiding the fact he was actively viewing child abuse material."

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