Northern Ireland

Anaesthetist to be sentenced for having 3,000 images of child abuse

Piotr Dziurdzik hides his face as he leaves Antrim courthouse yesterday. Picture by Justin Kernoghan
Piotr Dziurdzik hides his face as he leaves Antrim courthouse yesterday. Picture by Justin Kernoghan Piotr Dziurdzik hides his face as he leaves Antrim courthouse yesterday. Picture by Justin Kernoghan

A FORMER doctor at the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine will find out next week if he will go to jail for having nearly 3,000 images of child sex abuse.

Polish anaesthetist Piotr Dziurdzik (47) pleaded guilty to 33 offences committed between 2012 and 2015, including having over 200 images in the most serious categories.

Prosecutor Michael Chambers told Antrim Crown Court that when confronted by police he readily admitted what he had done.

The doctor, who claimed he was often drunk when viewing images, described his offending as "a paradox... knowing something is forbidden" and likened it to "Adam and Eve... the forbidden apple".

He said it "happened on occasion I was watching adult sites, there was links to sites we're talking about. It's not my area of interest".

The lawyer told Judge Sandra Crawford that the vast majority of images were of girls, and the age range was mainly between eight and 12, although "there were a smaller number of images of younger children".

Defence barrister Francis Rafferty said Dziurdzik's behaviour was both "disgraceful and appalling" and he had not tried to minimise his behaviour.

He said it would be "rare for the courts to witness a more precipitous fall from grace".

Mr Rafferty revealed that for the past year the anaesthetist has been seeking professional help from specialists in the field of sexual offending in an effort to understand what had happened.

Dziurdzik, he said, had started off watching legal adult pornography but went looking for more challenging materials and "ultimately illegal porn".

"Once he had stepped down that rabbit hole he was lost... he took a course from which he was unable to step back from."

The lawyer said there were "no circumstances in which he will be able to practise medicine again and quite rightly expects to be barred from practice".

The suspended doctor now "has no life left for him here" and has expressed a desire to return to his family in Poland.

Acknowledging that "no doubt this case has passed the custody threshold", Mr Rafferty said it was up to the court to decide whether the sentence should be suspended or not.

Judge Crawford said given the seriousness and complexities of the case, she wished to reflect on the issues before passing sentence next week.