A NURSE from East Lancashire who says that he unwittingly downloaded child porn images from a file-sharing website has been cleared by his professional watchdog.

Peter Dennis Davies has insisted while four files, with the titles ‘Paedophilia 9/10/11 year old’ and ‘Two 13 year old little girls’ had been saved to his laptop, he never searched for indecent pictures of children or viewed them.

And specialist forensic examiners confirmed for a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) conduct and competenence committee hearing Mr Davies had not viewed the files, which dated back to September 2009.

In a statement an expert analyst said it was ‘unique in his extensive experience’ for someone intentionally downloading such images to not attempt to watch them.

Following a three-day hearing at the Old Bailey in London Mr Davies, 56, who worked as a registered learning disabilities and mental health nurse at the Whalley-based Calderstones Partnership NHS Trust, has been told his fitness to practice was not impaired.

The finding mirrors the result of a Preston Crown Court case from May 2011 where Mr Davies, then of Tavistock Street, Nelson, was acquitted of four making indecent images charges on the direction of Judge Simon Newell.

NMC counsel had argued that Mr Davies’ fitness to practice had been called into question by the presence of four videos on his laptop - the other two titles were ‘PTHC web cam blond and BF, 14-year-old’ and ‘Duped college girl’.

But while the three-strong panel considered charges were found proved; on his own admission, Mr Davies had no reason to suspect searches he had made of the now-defunct American file-sharing website Limewire would produce indecent images.

He told the NMC hearing that he had admitted searching the site for ‘adult material’, around that time, but ‘emphatically denied’ hunting for child porn images. The committee heard from a computer expert that a legitimate search for adult material could have yielded the files included which formed the backbone of the case.

Dismissing the allegations, panel chairman Karen Heenan said: “There is no evidence to suggest that Mr Davies ever viewed any of the four files set out in charge one that contained indecent images.”