Kelly-Marie Porter
Introduction
Kelly-Marie Porter was a children’s nurse registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), registration number 05H2523E, when the regulator’s Fitness to Practise Committee struck her off the register in a decision dated 17 April 2026. The decision followed her criminal conviction at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court for making indecent images of a child and possessing an extreme pornographic image, for which she received a 32-week suspended prison sentence and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register. The panel found her fitness to practise currently impaired by reason of that conviction, directed her erasure — commonly described as being struck off the register — and imposed an 18-month interim suspension order to cover the appeal period .
Background Information
Porter was registered with the NMC as a nurse under PIN 05H2523E, and her practitioner profile records her specialty as children’s nursing . The panel’s aggravating factors note that she offended despite her long experience and training in safeguarding and awareness of personal and professional boundaries . Beyond her name, registration number, specialty and the outcome of her case, the public pages published by MedicWatch contain little biographical detail: they record no date of birth, no employment history and no earlier regulatory findings .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. The findings in this section come from a Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness-to-practise panel determination, which decided the charges on the balance of probabilities. Unlike most regulatory cases, this one includes a real criminal conviction: Kelly-Marie Porter was convicted at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court on 9 April 2025, and the underlying convictions are matters of court record as reported in the determination. The panel found Charge 1 proved in its entirety, on the basis of the certificate of conviction under Rule 31, so no charges were found not proved. The panel’s finding of current impairment by reason of conviction is itself a regulatory finding, not a fresh criminal one. Nothing here is a criminal record beyond what the determination itself states — and in this case the determination does record the court convictions.
The criminal convictions arose from offences of making and possessing indecent and extreme images. On 9 April 2025, Porter was convicted at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court of: possessing an extreme pornographic image portraying an act likely to result in serious injury to a person’s private parts, contrary to sections 63(1), (7)(b) and 67(2) of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act; making 13 category A indecent photographs of a child; making one category B indecent photograph of a child; and making 43 category C indecent photographs of a child, the last three contrary to sections 1(1)(a) and 6 of the Protection of Children Act 1978. On 4 June 2025 she was sentenced to 32 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months, placed on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years, and made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years .
The NMC’s Fitness to Practise Committee then considered Charge 1, which reflected those convictions, and found it proved in its entirety on the basis of the certificate of conviction under Rule 31 . The panel found Porter’s fitness to practise currently impaired by reason of conviction, on the grounds of public protection and the wider public interest, with limbs (a), (b) and (c) of the Grant test engaged . It noted her limited insight, observed that her reflection emphasised her partner’s behaviour rather than her own accountability, and concluded that the conduct was attitudinal rather than clinical; it determined that the case fell within the definition of a ‘highest risk case’ .
The panel recorded mitigating factors: Porter’s early admission of the facts, remorse shown in relation to the convictions, engagement with probation services, and steps taken towards remediation. Against that, it set aggravating factors: the very serious nature of the multiple offences warranting custodial sentences; the predatory nature of the behaviour involved in the offences; her limited insight; her role as a children’s nurse and her professional duty to protect and promote children, where the offences involved images of children, described as those most vulnerable in society; and her actions despite her long experience and training in safeguarding and awareness of personal and professional boundaries .
Having found impairment, the committee imposed a striking-off order on 17 April 2026, at a substantive hearing that began on the decision date, together with an 18-month interim suspension order to cover the appeal period .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The recorded consequences were first criminal and then regulatory. The criminal sentence of 4 June 2025 — 32 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months, the Sex Offenders Register for seven years and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years — preceded the regulatory outcome . The regulatory consequence was the most severe available to the committee: erasure from the register, with an interim suspension order pending the appeal period . Neither the determination page nor the practitioner profile records any press coverage, public statements or online campaigns connected with the case; both confine themselves to the regulator’s findings and links to the underlying decision . MedicWatch, an independent record service aggregating publicly published decisions of UK healthcare regulators, added the case to its record on 26 April 2026 .
Current Status
Porter’s most recent recorded outcome is erasure — struck off the register — decided on 17 April 2026 by the NMC at a substantive hearing that began the same day . The striking-off order is accompanied by an 18-month interim suspension order covering the appeal period . MedicWatch’s explainer notes that the regulator directed removal from the register in this decision, that the decision explains when the direction takes effect and any appeal provisions, and that readers should check the official NMC register for the practitioner’s current registration status . Her profile page carried a “registration status not yet verified” notice rather than a live confirmation of her position on the register .
Impact on Their Career/Life
The erasure removed Porter from the register on which her status as a registered children’s nurse depended, and the panel grounded its decision in her conviction rather than in any clinical shortcoming, having found the conduct attitudinal rather than clinical . The determination page gives no information about her subsequent employment or personal circumstances, and the profile page records no later regulatory decisions . Her case remains part of MedicWatch’s browsable record of nurse erasures, listed under the outcome “struck off the register” with the decision date of 17 April 2026 .