A pervert scout leader who molested a teenage boy more than 50 times was kicked out of the nursing profession.

Edward O'Donoghue, a qualified nurse from Upper Norwood systematically abused the 14-year-old in the late 1980s and once attacked him in his tent during a scouting trip to Wales.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council heard how the abuse began after the boy confided in O'Donoghue that he had been sexually abused by another scout leader since a young age.

The 51-year-old was struck off after an NMC panel ruled yesterday that his behaviour was “fundamentally incompatible” with practising as a nurse.

Panel chair Lesley White said: “We consider that the facts underlying these convictions are very serious indeed.

“They demonstrate a prolonged period of deliberate sexual abuse of a vulnerable adolescent boy to whom the registrant, as scoutmaster, owed a duty of trust.”

Louise Campbell, for the NMC, said the offences dated back to 1988 and 1989 when O'Donoghue, then in his early thirties, was the leader of a scout group in south London.

She said: “The victim of the offences was one of the scouts and was 14 at the time. He had been abused for a number of years from the age of just four by the scout master.

“At the age of 14, he confided in the registrant about the abuse by the scout master but asked him not to tell anybody, to which the registrant agreed.

“Shortly after, the first indecent assault by the registrant on the boy took place during a scout camping trip to Wales when they were sharing a tent.”

Ms Campbell said O'Donoghue performed a number of sex acts on the teenager during the trip.

The victim later married and underwent counselling in 2006 before confronting O'Donoghue about the abuse, the panel heard.

O'Donoghue, a nurse since 1981, admitted indecently assaulting the boy on a number of occasions and was later arrested by police.

The victim told officers that O'Donoghue had abused him on more than 50 occasions during the two year period.

O'Donoghue admitted four specimen counts of indecent assault on a person under 16 at Bromley Magistrates' Court on February 20, 2007.

On March 27, 2007, he was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court to two years behind bars and was disqualified from working with children.

He was also placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.

O'Donoghue did not attend the London hearing and made no response to the charges against him.