A senior nurse at a Marylebone hospital has been kicked out of the profession after he was caught distributing “grotesque” images of children and hoarding photos of babies being abused.

Stuart Cross, a former cardiac audit manager at the Heart Hospital, in Westmoreland Street, shared his extensive library with other paedophiles on an online network.

Police also found he had been engaging in online conversations with fellow paedophiles to discuss his sordid fantasies about having sex with young children.

Some of the youngsters depicted in the 370 indecent images found on his computer were less than a year old.

Cross, 38, of Brockley, was jailed for 21 months at Southwark Crown Court last April and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years after he admitted a series of child pornography charges.

He was released in February and on Tuesday he was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

David Patience, for the NMC, said: “There were a number of images and movie files, with several being at level four and five [the highest ranking for pornographic images], on the scale for determining the type of image.

“Some of the images were of very young children. One depicted a baby, about one to two months old, and another of a baby two to three months old. There was also a movie file of extreme porn of various sex acts between adults and animals. Such behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with remaining on the register, especially as it demonstrates a willingness to ignore the suffering of others, in this case children, for one’s own sexual gratification.”

Ruling that Cross should be struck off “for the public’s protection”, NMC panel chairman Laurence Peterken said: “We take the comments of Judge Anthony Leonard at the sentencing at Southwark Crown Court.

“I quote: ‘In my judgement, the images I have seen are quite horrible. It is also quite rare to find that so many of the images stored by the defendant were found to be at a level four or five.’

“How could anyone who has worked in the caring profession think of looking at these images, or start sharing these images with others, for sexual gratification.

“In the panel’s opinion the convictions are extremely grave and the extreme nature of the images make him incompatible for work in a caring profession.”