Anger was expressed at the delay in removing a child psychologist, who worked at the Tavistock clinic and was fired after grooming a 15-year-old boy for sex in a park, from the Health and Care Professions Council’s register.
Dr Ross Canade was the lead psychologist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust which provided services to children who were presenting with gender confusion.
The gender services clinic operated by the Trust became the focus of much controversy and criticism after whistleblowers alleged it was failing to give sufficient weight to mental-health issues in regard to the children attending services, and that a ‘gender-affirming’ approach was setting children on a pathway to the use of puberty blockers and medical and surgical treatments.
A review found that the clinic’s services were unsafe and that it was putting young people “at considerable risk” of poor mental health and distress.
Canade, who worked in the Trust but not in the controversial gender clinic, was sacked by Tavistock after being exposed in an online sting when he sent sexually explicit messages to an account of a boy he believed to be 15 years old. Sources at the Trust told MailOnline that none of its patients were involved in the offending.
He pleaded guilty during the summer to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, and this week received a 12-month suspended sentence at Wood Green Crown Court, the Daily Mail said.
Prosecutor Paul Fairley said Canade believed he was in contact with a 15-year-old boy and was unaware that ‘a decoy profile’ had been set up and he was in fact speaking to an older person.
The pair exchanged numbers and the conversation which ‘quickly turned sexual’ continued on WhatsApp.
They had talked about ‘having sex in a local park’ and five days later the pair met up and ate together in the Nando’s in Southgate, north London.
The Telegraph reported that “following a Health and Care Professions fitness to practice hearing on Thursday, he is now subject to an interim suspension order”.
However there was anger and disquiet when it was reported that Canade was still registered to practise “by the regulator which oversees his profession, despite his conviction for child sex offences”.
Anyone wishing to hire him to treat vulnerable children would find that, according to the website of the Health and Care Professions Council, he remains registered to practise, without any conditions. It is the council’s job to keep the public safe from rogue psychologists.
On Thursday, Talk TV host, Julia Hartley Brewer said that it was “utterly impossible to comprehend” that Canade wh ohad been caught “grooming children online” had not yet been removed from the register by the regulator. She contrasted the delay in striking Canade off with the swift action taken by regulatory bodies against professionals simply for disagreeing with gender ideology or critical race theory.
A child psychologist at the Tavistock remains free to practise, despite being caught luring a 15-year-old boy for sex in a park.
— Talk (@TalkTV) October 3, 2024
Julia Hartley-Brewer: “On what basis could they possibly justify someone continuing to be allowed to work with vulnerable children?”@JuliaHB1 pic.twitter.com/bV2kHyCJcZ