A nurse is set to be struck off the medical register after touching a 17-year-old girl’s genitals on a train and asking her to “lie to her parents”.

Michael Francis Jose was caught ‘sexting’ a patient after she was discharged from Royal Brompton Hospital in June 2020, and took her to a hotel room in Croydon, according to a medical tribunal.

The pair were only in the hotel room for a few minutes before hotel staff knocked on the door and asked to see Mr Jose’s identification.

The nurse was arrested and interviewed twice by the police on July 17, 2020, and August 10, 2020, but the police took no further action according to tribunal documents.

The patient first met Mr Jose that summer when she was being treated at Royal Brompton Hospital from May 19 to June 8, 2020.

The pair later began talking on Instagram and Mr Jose would send the patient messages such as “Good Morning Pretty,” and they would talk about sex, the tribunal heard.

They later arranged to meet at Tunbridge Wells station in Kent before travelling to London Bridge and then onto East Croydon by train.

The tribunal heard the nurse touched the 17-year-old, referred to as patient A, while they were on a train travelling from Croydon to Purley.

A report into the incident said: “You explained how you felt Patient A’s ‘pubic parts’ and felt the tip of your finger enter her vagina.

"You said that you removed your hand after approximately five seconds, and called Patient A a ‘naughty girl.’

“You told the panel that you did not digitally penetrate Patient A as it was only the tip of your finger, and not your full finger, which entered Patient A’s vagina.”

A Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel also heard how hotel staff had come to ask Mr Jose to identify himself after he turned up with the patient at a Croydon hotel.

Mr Jose said: “[The patient] immediately went to bed to sleep while I checked out the bathroom and toilet then proceeded to sit on a chair and look for some Dominos pizza nearby.

“There was a knock on the door after a few minutes. It was the front desk asking for my identification.”

The nurse also told the 17-year-old to lie to her parents and say she had just been sightseeing in order to “protect himself,” the tribunal’s documents revealed.

In an interview with the British Transport Police, Mr Jose said: “I was in a way also protecting myself because in my mind I didn’t think I did anything wrong anyway.

“It’s just that I didn’t want this to blow up my employers knowing that this kind of thing happened because again it might just like lead to my termination from the hospital. I don’t feel that I deserve that.”

The nurse was dismissed from Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS

Foundation Trust on February 17, 2021, and their contract ended on March 16, 2021.

Mr Jose attended the first part of a tribunal about his conduct between January 4 and January 6, 2023.

He did not attend three days of the virtual hearing between January 9 and January 12.

On January 10 he emailed the NMC asking to not be struck off the medical register.

He said: “I am traumatised by this experience since the beginning and conclusion of the investigation in which I cooperated freely with the authorities handling the case.

“I believe that I don’t pose as a threat to the public. I know that I could still do the job. It is my hope that I be given a chance to go back to the job that I love.”

But the panel decided the nurse, who worked in Croydon and Kensington and Chelsea, will be struck off the medical register unless he appeals the NMC decision within 28 days.

Concluding the tribunal the NMC said: “The panel bore in mind its finding that Patient A was vulnerable as a result of her health and personal circumstances, and her status as a “child in need”.

“It bore in mind its findings that some of your actions were sexually motivated, in pursuit of a future sexual relationship and for your own sexual gratification. In light of this, the panel found your misconduct to be serious.”