Hospice nurse's sick actions ban

Tŷ Hafan Children’s Hospice nurse who flicked a vulnerable child’s penis when he was “bound to a wheelchair” and “defenceless” has been banned from the profession.

- ABBIE WIGHTWICK Education editor

Registered children’s nurse Karen Elizabeth Allen was also found to have repeatedly soaked the child, who was non-verbal, with water.

In another incident she pulled another vulnerable child’s underpants up so high that they were uncomfortable. Her actions were “cruel and degrading” as well as “sexual in nature” a professional standards committee found.

Striking Allen off the register, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) panel said she had put vulnerable patients at risk of physical and emotional harm and brought the profession into disrepute.

Finding a raft of serious allegations against the registered children’s nurse proved, the panel found she had shown no insight into her “deplorable” actions.