A CHILDREN'S nurse caught indecently assaulting a teenager has been thrown out of the profession.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) yesterday heard that Martin Austin, 46, pulled the curtain round the diabetes sufferer's bed and molested her while on duty at the University Hospital of North Durham.

Disgraced Austin, of Fallowfield, Northumberland, had his name removed from the nursing register.

David Glendinning, for the NMC, said the nurse was working on the Treetops Ward at the time of the sex assault on November 23 last year.

"The respondent admitted in a police interview that he was at the girl's bedside but gave an implausible explanation for his actions.

"The 13-year-old patient who was the victim of the assault was receiving treatment for diabetes. She was a vulnerable patient and suffered from behavioural problems."

Detective Constable Robin Field, of Durham Police, said the sex assault had been witnessed by another nurse, Clare Baxter.

"When she entered the room, a curtain was drawn around the bed but there was a gap. Martin Austin was standing by the bed.

"Nurse Baxter saw him leaning over the patient with his head extremely close to the female patient and she could see his hands was between the girl's legs.

"He said the reason he was leaning over the patient was so he was close enough for her to smell his aftershave and he was unaware where he had placed his hands."

Austin admitted one charge of indecent assault at Durham Crown Court on December 16 last year. He was jailed for six months in January this year.

Committee chairwoman Nancy Kirkland said that Austin, who did not attend the hearing, was guilty of misconduct by virtue of his conviction, and struck his name from the register.

"It is the duty of each registered nurse to act in such a manner to justify the trust the public has in the nursing profession," she said.

"He failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries in his relationship with this behaviour."