Alfred Hospital male nurse Peter Hauser shared ‘graphic’ child abuse material

A former nurse at The Alfred Hospital will be able to reapply for his registration despite being found guilty of sending heinous prerecorded messages fantasising about sexual acts against children to a phone service.

A male nurse who shared child abuse material while employed at The Alfred Hospital will be able to reapply for his job in four years. Picture: Wikipedia

A male nurse who shared “graphic and vile” child abuse material while employed at a major Melbourne hospital will be allowed to reapply for his job in four years.

Peter Hauser had an unblemished 29-year career in the health service industry – appointed to several nursing and midwifery committees – before a Victoria Police investigation uncovered his dark secret.

While working as a perioperative co-ordinator at The Alfred, Hauser sent heinous prerecorded messages fantasising sexual acts against young boys to a telephone chat service known as ‘Fast Meet’.

The service allows members to phone in and make recordings for others to listen to.

Hauser sent a total of 19 prerecorded messages and three live chat phone calls between November 2020 and June 2022.

The recordings were not played in court, but County Court Judge Fran Dalziel provided summaries for each message, with the last few described as “inherently abhorrent”.

Peter Hauser had an unblemished 29-year career before his dark secret was uncovered. Picture: AAP Image

In late 2023, with assistance from the Australian Federal Police, investigators arrested Hauser who would later plead guilty to one charge of using a carriage service to transmit and make available child abuse material.

Judge Dalziel sentenced Hauser to two years’ imprisonment but imposed a recognisance release order, allowing him to walk free from court.

This month the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal cancelled Hauser’s health practitioner registration in an uncontested hearing against the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

While both the tribunal and Judge Dalziel found Hauser’s recordings to be “graphic and vile” he will be able to reapply for his nursing registration in four years on April 7, 2029.

An Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency spokesman defended the VCAT decision, telling the Herald Sun it viewed it as an “appropriate” outcome.

“The tribunal imposed sanctions in line with what the Board had submitted was appropriate,” the spokesman said.

The former Alfred Hospital nurse will be able to reapply for his registration in four years. Medical generic. Picture: Burst

“In making those submissions the Board treated public protection as the paramount concern.

“The period of disqualification of four years is significant.”

Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia chair Veronica Casey echoed APHRA’s comments, adding it was a “very serious outcome” that had reflected the gravity of Hauser’s actions.

“The Board is pleased that the tribunal accepted its view of the seriousness of the conduct and that a very firm sanction was appropriate,” Professor Casey said.

Following his arrest in 2023, Hauser’s home and electronic devices were searched, with police determining he had no other material and he had not committed any physical acts of abuse.

It must be noted that Hauser was never found to have recorded messages during work hours or while at The Alfred.

The court heard how Hauser, currently in his 50s, had trained in Queensland before becoming a registered nurse, later moving to Sydney where he met his partner.

Hauser sent heinous prerecorded messages fantasising sexual acts against children to phone service. Picture: Istock

Upon the couple’s move to Melbourne in 2018, Hauser became socially isolated during the COVID-19 lockdown period, calling into ‘Fast Meet’ compulsively as a coping mechanism.

When sentencing Hauser in Nov 2023, Judge Dalziel warned that while the recordings were fiction and no child was actually hurt, they still raised real-world consequences.

“One potential danger of this type of conduct as you accept, is that others hearing this type of content may feel validated and thus may be encouraged to pursue their own perverted sexual interest in children and which has the capacity to lead to other more serious offending,” she said.

Hauser was a no-show at his VCAT hearing, emailing the tribunal ahead of time to confirm he would not make an appearance in his defence.

“I believe that the outcome of the tribunal hearing is but a foregone conclusion, and any defence would be an exercise in futility,” he wrote.

“I am well aware that the tribunal will hear this matter and make determinations even in my absence, and I will accept and respect their ruling.”

Alfred Health declined to answer questions posed by the Herald Sun.