Disgraced anaesthetist gets five year ban over child abuse images

A Queensland anaesthetist caught in possession of thousands of child abuse images has been barred from practising medicine for five years.

Keith Benjamin Greenland. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

A Queensland anaesthetist caught in possession of thousands of child abuse images has been barred from practising medicine for five years after a tribunal found he had engaged in professional misconduct.

Keith Benjamin Greenland was a medical practitioner highly respected in his field and well known as a speaker, published researcher and committee member who also played an active role in the fight against the 2004 SARS influenza in Hong Kong.

In February last year, Greenland pleaded guilty to distributing, accessing and possessing child exploitation material which included images of girls as young as five engaged in sexual activity.

He narrowly avoided prison time and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment wholly suspended for two-and-a-half years and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

Keith Benjamin Greenland. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

The Health Ombudsman brought proceedings against Greenland in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal which was tasked with deciding whether the disgraced doctor’s crimes constituted either “unsatisfactory professional performance or unprofessional conduct or professional misconduct”.

Greenland, 63, submitted to the tribunal that he did not intend to return to the medical field and that he had voluntarily surrendered his registration in March 2020.

He also conceded his behaviour constituted professional misconduct.

In a decision handed down by QCAT member and retired Judge Julie Dick SC, she noted Greenland had also voluntarily resigned from a number of professional membership bodies and removed his name as the supervising author on a research project.

The tribunal took into account the considerable extra-curial consequences of Greenland’s offending.

“The respondent made immediate revelations to his family and extended family,” the QCAT decision said.

“He was well known as a speaker, committee member and published researcher. He resigned from all such positions so his fall from grace was very public.”

The tribunal also took into account that Greenland had sought regular treatment with a psychiatrist and had also completed a sexual offender counselling course.

The tribunal determined that Greenland had behaved in a way that constituted professional misconduct, formally reprimanded him and disqualified him from applying for registration as a health practitioner for five years.