Social worker banned after child pornography conviction

A social worker from Lincoln has been banned from practising after being convicted of possessing indecent photographs of children and maintaining a “grossly offensive” website.

John Bennett breached the General Social Care Council’s code of practice for social care workers, the GSCC’s conduct committee ruled last week.

Bennett was convicted on 21 February and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for maintaining a website showing “obscene” and “menacing” content and for several charges of possessing and making indecent photographs of children.

Bennett, who was employed by Lincolnshire Council, was suspended from practising as a social worker when the GSCC was alerted to his arrest in March last year.

The GSCC’s conduct committee said after the hearing that the offences had taken place over a “substantial” period of time and that Bennett had failed to show insight “considering his seniority and direct experience of child protection issues”.

Bennett is the third social worker to be removed from the social care register.

Earlier this year, Southampton social worker Nicholas Martin was struck off for sending and receiving “offensive, discriminatory and obscene” e-mails.

Senior social worker Antony Peter Jacks was struck off last year over his relationship with a 14-year-old female service user at Huntercombe Stafford psychiatric hospital in the West Midlands.

Overmatter links:

GSCC press release on outcome of case: