A senior nurse who was struck off from the nursing register after being caught with child pornography has said he viewed the images “out of boredom”.

Mark Robert Sweet, from Surrey, was cautioned in June 2011 after a police raid found his computer contained 40 vile photographs of children.

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) hearing, held in Aldwych last week, decided to “strike off” the nurse, meaning he cannot reapply for a nursing position for at least five years.

At the time of his arrest he had been working for the South-West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLSTG) as a senior clinical specialist nurse.

The trust is responsible for Springfield Hospital, in Tooting, and Queen Mary’s Hospital, in Roehampton.

In his police interview, the NMC panel heard, Sweet showed both “regret and shame” after the images were found.

He also claimed he had discovered and viewed the images because of an addiction to internet pornography “borne out of depression and boredom rather than sexual gratification”.

Sweet, who has 28 days to lodge an appeal, was suspended from his employment at the trust on June 8, 2011, pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation.

The NMC panel’s statement read: “Following the conclusion of the investigation, a disciplinary hearing was held on July 8, 2011, the outcome of which was the dismissal of the registrant on the grounds of gross misconduct.

“The appropriate sanction in this case is erasure from the register as the admitted offence and risk of repetition is incompatible with remaining on the register.

“Having done so, it decided to make a striking-off order as there is no evidence before it that a lesser sanction would be sufficient to protect the public and adequately meet the public interest in this case.”

The Crown Prosecution Service decided that, as a small number of images were found, it would not be in the public interest to prosecute so Sweet was cautioned instead.

A spokesman from SWLSTG: “As soon as we became aware of the material we took immediate action to dismiss Mr Sweet and begin a thorough investigation.”