Disgraced children’s doctor chased through hospital by ‘paedo hunter’ is struck off

A disgraced children’s doctor who arranged to meet an underage boy for sex on hospital grounds has been struck off.

Salman Siddiqi, 45, has been struck from the medical register after a self-professed ‘paedophile hunter’ caught him at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) in Margate, Kent. The panel took just three hours to remove him after determining his actions undermined his fitness to practice.

The ‘hunter’ had pretended to be a 14-year-old boy and arranged to meet the consultant at his lodgings on the hospital grounds. When the amateur detective confronted Siddiqi outside his accommodation at 3am on 8 January last year, he turned and ran through the hospital’s A&E department in a bid to flee.

But they gave chase and called the police as Siddiqi tried scrambling away, using his hospital access card to enter restricted areas. He appeared at Folkestone Magistrates' Court on 9 January, where he pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual communication with a child and attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of a sex offence.

He was jailed in June last year at Canterbury Crown Court for 28 months and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years. Siddiqi, who is being held at HMP Maidstone, chose not to attend his three-day hearing at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, based in Manchester.

Following Siddiqi’s arrest in January, Rebecca Martin - the chief medical officer at East Kent Hospitals – says the incident was immediately reported to the General Medical Council.

“Our review did not identify any patient involvement or failures in our processes that would have directly prevented this criminal offence,” she said.

“There were missed opportunities to identify his previous caution and we have taken steps to ensure that it cannot happen again.”

An interim order of suspension had been in place regarding Siddiqi while awaiting the hearing, which was due to expire at the end of the month.

Siddiqi snared by 'paedo hunter'

Siddiqi’s sentencing hearing at Canterbury Crown Court heard how he used gay dating app Grindr to converse with a self-styled paedophile hunter claiming to be a 14-year-old boy called Lee. The doctor also lied about his age on his profile, saying he was 32 when in fact he was 44.

"Mr Siddiqi engaged with ‘Lee’ on the Grindr app and asked him to come to his home for oral sex and sent pictures of his erect penis," prosecutor Amy Nicholson said.

"He asked him to come to his place of work to meet him at the QEQM, where the defendant was working at the time as a paediatric doctor."

The pair started talking on 7 January, with ‘Lee’ making it clear he was underage, the court heard. The amateur detective asked: "Are you okay with me being 14?" "Yes," Siddiqi replied.

In later messages, when asked if he wanted to meet, Siddiqi said: "It is not allowed by law otherwise I would've loved it." The vigilante wrote: “I can sneak out, my mum’s sleeping. We could have some fun together but I’m pretty new to this and I’m nervous. I’m just 14 and not done this before.”

Siddiqi responded by reassuring his target and encouraging him to take part in sexual acts. When Siddiqi was arrested explicit messages and images related to his offending were uncovered when police searched his phone.

Kevin Dent KC, mitigating, said the former doctor was a “figure of shame and embarrassment to those who know him”. The intensive care paediatrician had been allowed to continue treating children at QEQM despite previously receiving a police caution for flashing.

Struck off

In the UK, if a doctor is found to have breached the standards of professional conduct, they may be subject to disciplinary action by the General Medical Council (GMC). This can include being "struck off" the medical register, which means that they are no longer able to practice medicine in the UK.

Once a doctor has been erased from the register they must wait five years before applying to have their name restored, however due to the nature of Siddiqi’s conviction it is unlikely he will ever be granted a licence to practice again.

The latest GMC report, which is for the year 2022, reveals that 68 doctors were removed and 101 were suspended from the medical register.