December 2014
Paedophile children’s doctor jailed for 22 years after admitting to sexually abusing 18 seriously ill boys in his care
A paedophile children’s doctor who admitted abusing 18 seriously ill boys in his care was jailed for 22 years today.
Myles Bradbury, 41, a consultant paediatric haematologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, admitted abusing boys aged between ten and 16, including children with haemophilia, leukaemia and other serious illnesses.
Judge Gareth Hawkesworth, sitting at Cambridge Crown Court, described Bradbury’s actions as ‘one of the worst forms of sexual abuse imaginable’.
Married Bradbury, from Herringswell, Suffolk, carried out medical examinations on boys ‘purely for his own sexual gratification’, the court heard.
He filmed some of them using a spy pen and abused others behind a curtain while their parents were in the room.
In total, he pleaded guilty to 25 offences, including sexual assault, voyeurism and possessing more than 16,000 indecent images, against boys aged between 10 and 16, and was sentenced today.
Judge Gareth Hawkesworth said Bradbury’s sentence would be reduced because of his early guilty pleas although ‘some might observe’ that the overwhelming evidence against him meant he had little choice but to admit the offences.
Describing Bradbury as ‘manipulative”, he added: ‘For a doctor to attack children in this way is one of the worst forms of sexual abuse imaginable.’
The judge continued: ‘These boys were all vulnerable and gravely ill.
‘In all my years on the bench, I have never come across such a grotesque betrayal of your Hippocratic oath.
‘There are almost too many aggravating factors to list in your prolonged carefully, planned and cruel abuse.
‘It is implicit in what you did for your own sexual gratification that you were targeting the most vulnerable, sick children.’
He added that he had no doubt Bradbury had caused ‘serious psychological’ harm to his victims and there was a risk he would do so in future but said the doctor’s recognition of his deviancy meant the risk could be managed.
At the beginning of Bradbury’s sentencing hearing on Friday, prosecutor John Farmer said the defendant had a ‘longstanding, unlawful, sexual interest in boys’.
He added: ‘The defendant, through the trust he had acquired, circumvented the procedures and encourages a number of young patients to see him alone.
Doctor: Bradbury, from Herringswell, Suffolk, carried out medical examinations on boys at Addenbrooke’s Hospital ‘purely for his own sexual gratification’, the court heard
‘It was in these circumstance under the guise of legitimate examinations he went entirely beyond the bounds.
‘He took the opportunity of fondling the boy’s genitals and encouraging them to masturbate in his presence and obtain erections for his own personal gratification.
‘On some occasions, when he failed to exclude the parent, he simply carried on behind the curtain behind which the boy had gone to remove his clothes.’
The offences took place over four-and-a-half years, beginning within six months of him taking up his post in 2008 and continuing to the day he was suspended on November 28 last year when the first concerns were raised.
Some 800 families of children cared for by Bradbury were contacted about possible abuse, distracting staff from their main job of caring for the sick.
At some point, he began using a camera pen in an attempt to gain images of the boys when partially clothed, Mr Farmer added.
Police found 170,425 images on this pen but none of these were classed as indecent.
Mr Farmer explained Bradbury was first arrested in December 2013 after police were alerted by Canadian authorities that he had bought a DVD containing indecent images of children as part of Operation Spade.
At that point Cambridgeshire Police were already investigating after concerns were raised about his conduct.
Prosecutor John Farmer told Cambridge Crown Court that, although Bradbury was a maverick who had operated outside all accepted norms of his profession, his behaviour had forced fellow specialists to adjust their approach to avoid suspicion.
Mr Farmer added: ‘The gravity of these offences does not lie in the actual extent of the sexual conduct but the grave breach of trust which has had a profoundly undermining effect on these and other patients to the point that the practice of this area of medicine has had to be re-approached to regain the lost trust and put in procedures to avoid not only such conduct but the perception that it might happen.’
Bradbury, who, the court heard, was also involved in church and Scout groups, was described as ‘a man of great charm and persuasiveness’ whom everybody trusted.
Cambridge Crown Court heard that the combined effect of the illnesses suffered by the boys and their treatment can lead to concerns about development in puberty, meaning medics must monitor genital and sexual development.
But the court also heard that Bradbury’s examinations went way beyond the norm, had no medical justification and were carried out purely for his own sexual gratification.
When one victim raised concerns with his mother, she responded: ‘He’s a doctor, it must be necessary.’
Mr Farmer said: ‘That was the very image that really protected him from anything other than the most persistent line of complaint.’
Outlining details of some of Bradbury’s victims, the prosecutor said the familiar routine involved isolating them from their parents, asking them to remove their clothes and then groping their genitals.
The depth of the examinations were often increased to meet Bradbury’s sexual needs, not any medical requirement, he added.
The first to raise concerns had suffered from leukaemia from a young age but had been in remission.
During one visit, Bradbury asked him to take his clothes off and give himself an erection. This abuse escalated on a later visit.
Mr Farmer said Bradbury used reverse psychology to keep his victims quiet, saying that they could tell their parents if they liked, but they might prefer it to remain confidential.
He added: ‘This boy showed great wisdom.
‘He could not see why it should be secret so, once in the car, he told his family.
‘By gentle cross-examination, his grandmother got the full story out of him, mulled it over and started the chain that brings the defendant here today.’
Although the sexual contact was not the most severe in nature, the abuse of trust had a serious impact on the victims, Mr Farmer added.
One said in a statement read to the court: ‘I am now anxious to go to the doctor because I don’t know who I should trust.
‘I have haemophilia and a pain in my side so I know I should go but I feel disgusted and weird.
‘I didn’t think it would happen to me and I feel angry every time I think about it but also relieved it wasn’t just me but we shouldn’t have to go through it.’
Another said he had regular nightmares, felt stressed and lacked confidence.
‘I’d like to see Myles Bradbury and ask him why he did what he did to me,’ he added.
Mitigating, Bradbury’s barrister, Angela Rafferty, told the court that her client had repressed homosexual tendencies during puberty and this may help explain his crimes.
She added that, unlike some paedophiles, he recognised that what he did was ‘repugnant’ and had never sought to justify his behaviour.
Bradbury graduated from Medical School at the University of Birmingham in 1996.
He held a number of roles before entering the General Medical Council’s specialist register in haematology in 2007.
His first consultancy was in paediatric haematology at Birmingham Children’s Hospital in 2007 but he moved to Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge after a little more than a year.
He continued in that role until a complaint was made about possible abuse by the grandmother of a patient and he was suspended on November 28 2013 – exactly five years after he took up the post.
Ms Rafferty conceded in court that any good Bradbury had done through his job was negated by his abuse.
‘He knows he will not get any understanding or forgiveness because what he did was unforgivable,” she said.
‘His medical life may have done some good at some time but that means nothing now.
‘He accepts that that was the life which allowed him to commit those offences.’
The respectable family man who volunteered at an African orphanage… but secretly targeted vulnerable children
On face value, Dr Myles Bradbury was a respectable professional and an active member of the community.
Living in the pretty and affluent village of Herringswell, Suffolk, the 41-year-old was married and his wife gave birth to their first child, a girl, during the course of the police investigation into his abuse.
He was a church-goer, played a role in the Scout movement and went on a church mission to an orphanage in Swaziland to help children with Aids as recently as 2012.
Respectable: Bradbury was a church-goer, played a role in the Scout movement and went on a church mission to an orphanage in Swaziland to help children with Aids as recently as 2012
One neighbour said: ‘He seemed like somebody who wanted to do good. Everybody’s in complete shock because he seemed normal and nice.
‘We just feel for his wife who had no idea what was going on.’
Bradbury graduated from Medical School at the University of Birmingham in 1996.
He held a number of roles before entering the General Medical Council’s specialist register in haematology in 2007.
His first consultancy was in paediatric haematology at Birmingham Children’s Hospital in 2007 but he moved to Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge after a little more than a year.
Serious: A photo from a trip to Africa during which Bradbury was left alone with children
He continued in that role until a complaint was made about possible abuse by the grandmother of a patient and he was suspended on November 28 2013 – exactly five years after he took up the post.
Hospital bosses have said the consultant paediatric haematologist deliberately targeted the most physically and emotionally vulnerable children in a manner which has fundamentally undermined trust in the medical profession.
Cambridge University Hospital NHS Trust, which employed Bradbury, said his crimes have had a ‘profound and devastating’ impact on patients, their families and staff.
His abuse extended to deliberately misleading patients into thinking their conditions were more serious than they actually were in order to encourage them to attend more appointments than necessary, a statement from the Trust said.
And the trauma forced bereaved parents to relive the pain of losing a child after learning they had been abused.
‘For these parents and families, they cannot ask the painful questions open to others nor receive reassurance,’ a trust spokesman said.
The hospital spokesman said the abuse has had a long-lasting impact.
He added: ‘Almost a year on, the effects of his cold and calculating actions continue to cause anguish and sadly, for many, may do so for years to come.
‘First, and most importantly, there is the effect of his abuse on the young male patients in his care.
‘We should remember that his patients were being treated for cancer and serious blood disorders, which is highly traumatic in itself, especially for children and adolescents.
‘He appears to focus his attention on the most physically and emotionally vulnerable children under his care.
‘It is clear that he betrayed the trust he had built up with these patients over months and years.
‘Many of these patients have lost faith in the medical profession and, for those facing ongoing treatment, are now understandably fearful of returning to hospital.’
He said parents had been persuaded to place their children in a vulnerable position, believing it was in their best interest.
‘This betrayal has shaken their trust in the medical profession at a time when they needed it most,’ the spokesman added.
