A paramedic who served in Iraq downloaded sick child abuse images over 10 years when he was "feeling down" or "having a bad day", a disciplinary panel heard.
Nathan Williams told police he started accessing the indecent pictures following his second tour of duty for the military in Iraq in 2006.
When police raided his house in June last year they found 341 indecent images of children on his electronic devices.
Williams, by then a paramedic with the North East Ambulance Service, was handed a suspended prison sentence in April this year and has now been struck off by the Health & Care Professions Tribunals Service (HCPTS).
A report of the disciplinary hearing said Williams was arrested at home on June 29 2018. He was interviewed under caution and admitted that he had accessed such images.
The HCPTS said: "The [ North East Ambulance Service ] Trust suspended [Williams] from his employment on 2 July 2018 and referred the matter to the HCPC.
He was convicted of three counts of making indecent photographs/pseudo-photographs of a child at North Tyneside Magistrates Court in April this year, the panel heard.
A judge at Newcastle Crown Court then sentenced him to eight months imprisonment, suspended for 24 months, 200 hours of unpaid work, participation in a sex offenders rehabilitation programme, a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years and inclusion on the Sex Offender Register for 10 years.
The HCPTS report said: "The Registrant was consistent in his explanations as to when and why he accessed indecent images of children when interviewed by the Police and the Trust.
"During the police interview he stated that he began accessing such images following a second tour of duty for the military in Iraq in 2006.
"He described downloading the images in bundles from a filesharing site for sexual gratification.
"The police investigation had revealed 341 indecent images of children upon the Registrant’s electronic devices. The images had been categorised by the police as falling into all three categories of image (i.e. A – C).
"The Panel could not 'go behind' the conviction, but in any event it noted that the Registrant accepted from the outset of the criminal investigation that he had accessed indecent images over a prolonged period of time when he was feeling down.
"Given the prolonged period over which the Registrant admitted accessing indecent images of children, and the fact that he did so when he was having a bad day, the Panel was concerned that there remained a risk of repetition of the behaviour."
They decided to permanently bar him from the profession, saying, "He had been convicted of serious offences of a sexual nature which involved children, and had admitted to accessing similar content since 2006.
"He showed no insight into the impact his behaviour had on his profession and the public and the Panel was satisfied that any sanction other than striking the Registrant from the register would undermine public and professional confidence in the Regulator."
