Cancer researcher convicted of child pornography charges is spared erasure after showing remorse

A histopathologist and noted cancer researcher will keep his medical registration despite a conviction for viewing child pornography on the internet. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service chose not to apply the usual sanction of erasure to Dana Faratian, instead suspending him for one year.

Faratian, 35, whom the MPTS panel acknowledged had “made singular contributions within the UK and beyond in relation to molecular and other laboratory analysis for the sophisticated diagnosis of cancers” lost his job at Edinburgh University and his funding from Medical Research Scotland after his conviction in October 2012. …