A married NHS paramedic has been struck off after a disciplinary panel heard he trawled a swingers' dating site for women while on 999 callouts, planning to groom mothers so he could target their young children. Gary Hutton, 59, from Doncaster, sent selfies of himself in uniform tending to patients to gain women's trust before steering conversations towards "kinks" and abusing children as young as six. He was jailed for 10 years last November after being caught in an undercover police operation and was branded a "dangerous offender" by a judge.

The Healthcare Practitioners Tribunal Service heard Hutton, who had worked for Yorkshire Ambulance Service since 1998 and qualified as a paramedic in 2013, was arrested in February 2025 after unknowingly messaging an undercover officer posing as a mother of a six-year-old. Devices seized from him revealed near-identical grooming conversations with other women whose children were aged seven to 12, discussing "educating" the youngsters. He admitted attempting to arrange or facilitate a child sex offence, and following his eventual release he will remain on licence until 2040 and subject to a 15-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.