THE relationship between a family doctor and a patient is a very special one. And trust is at the heart of it.

Dr Riccardo Benci was trusted by his patients at the North-East practice where he worked.

He betrayed that trust by indulging first in adult pornorgraphy and then in vile sado-masochistic images of boys as young as six.

Judge Guy Whitburn said at Teesside Crown Court yesterday that there was no evidence that Benci was a paedophile. But anyone who downloads pornographic images of children for their own sexual gratification is guilty of terrible abuse.

Following Benci's jailing yesterday, the General Medical Council will now review his fitness to carry on as a doctor and there can only be one conclusion. He must never practise again.

But it will be understandable if at least some of Benci's patients question an earlier decision by Sedgefield Primary Care Trust to allow him to carry on practising after he was discovered accessing adult porn on his work computer.

At best it shows a disturbing lack of judgement for a family doctor to download pornographic images while at work. It led to the PCT giving Benci an official warning following a disciplinary hearing in May 2004.

But patients may take the view that they would not have wanted to continue being intimately treated by someone of such questionable character.

Is it right that they were denied that choice?