Former nurse Sanjeev Varghese outside High Court after losing appeal against his striking off the register (Picture: Paul Keogh)

A hospital nurse who showed colleagues a video of a woman having a sex toy removed from her anus has been struck off at the High Court.

Sanjeev Varghese, 44, admitted showing the WhatsApp video to colleagues at Manchester Royal Infirmary during a shift in October 2014.

He denied he found it ‘hilarious’ and had in fact shown it in a professional way’ before deleting it and blocking the friend who had sent it to him.

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Varghese also denied the suggestion that he had shown an indecent video involving a small child and a goat to colleagues on the same day.


A Nursing and Midwifery Council panel found him guilty of misconduct last November, but a decision to strike him off was suspended pending a High Court appeal.



Mr Justice Mostyn has now confirmed the decision that Mr Varghese’s fitness to practise as a nurse is ‘impaired by misconduct’ and he should be struck off.

Nothing had happened at the NMC disciplinary hearing which suggested he had been hard done by, he ruled.

Manchester Royal Infirmary (Picture: Getty)

‘The hearing was conducted with scrupulous fairness and the evidence examined with exhaustive thoroughness,’ he told the court.

‘Having found that Mr Varghese did indeed show these videos to his colleagues, a finding of impairment due to misconduct was inevitable.

‘The decision to strike off was not wrong. In my judgment, it was right.’

The court heard Mr Varghese was working in the endoscopy unit of the Grafton Street hospital when he showed the ‘revolting’ videos to colleagues.

One said what she saw would stay with her for a long time, while another said she had retched after seeing the video of the woman.

He denied there was anything sinister in his actions, claiming that his colleagues had conspired to fit him up.

Each of them held a ‘personal grudge’ against him, he claimed.

Following his disciplinary hearing, an NMC committee found the allegations against Mr Varghese were proved.

Sanjeev Varghese is banned from nursing (Picture: Getty)

In showing the videos, he had brought the nursing profession into disrepute and committed an ‘inexcusable’ breach of a nurse’s duty to act with integrity.

At the High Court, he claimed that the committee had got it all wrong when believing his accusers’ accounts and not his.

But Mr Justice Mostyn rejected his case and said his decision to accuse his accusers of perjury made matters even worse for him.

And in a further blow, he ordered the now unemployed dad to pick up the NMC’s £4,000 lawyers’ bills.

Earlier, Mr Varghese, who had 20 years’ experience as a nurse, said: ‘I’m extremely sorry for what happened, but there was no bad intention.’