A primary school nurse who shared almost 200 pornographic pictures of young boys with other Internet perverts has been kicked out of the profession after a hearing in London.

Stephen Paul Green, 25, who worked with the Hartlepool Care Trust, swapped images after making contact with other web surfers in chatrooms.

Last year, Green was locked up for five months at Durham Crown Court and put on the sex offenders' register for seven years after he was convicted of 16 counts of making indecent pictures or pseudo-photographs of a child.

Yesterday, a professional conduct committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) removed him from its register.

The hearing was told Green had only been working for the trust for four months when he was arrested in January last year.

David Glendinning, for the NMC, told the inquiry: "The respondent was employed as a school nurse with the Hartlepool Care Trust.

"He worked in primary schools in the Hartlepool area having taken up post in September 2003.

"Following his arrest on January 9, 2004, he was suspended.

"He was interviewed under caution and admitted he had been sent images of children from people he had spoken to in chatrooms.

"He admitted he viewed the images but had subsequently deleted them, and he further admitted they were young naked males."

William Buxton, chairman of the conduct committee, said: "His actions in making use of child pornography were fundamentally incompatible with being a nurse.

"This action caused direct harm to vulnerable children in that it encouraged child abuse.

"The committee believes that the respondent could pose a significant risk to any children who might come within his care as a nurse."

Green, from Witton Gilbert, near Durham City, did not attend yesterday's hearing in London.

A spokesman for the trust said last night: "We would like to make it clear this individual no longer works for us."