Nurse Iain Scott Laing has been struck off after he was caught on camera using a 13-year-old girl's underwear for masturbation while dog-sitting. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) ruled he is no longer fit to practise and ordered his removal from the register.
Laing had been trusted with access to an acquaintance's home in January 2025 to look after their puppy. A motion-activated camera inside the property caught him repeatedly creeping into the teenager's bedroom while nobody else was home.
Court Conviction and Appeal
A published Sheriff Appeal Court judgment confirmed Laing entered the girl's room on three separate occasions, stealing underwear from a basket to use for masturbation inside the house. He pleaded guilty in January 2025 to threatening or abusive behaviour contrary to Section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, with a sexual aggravation.
He was handed a three-year community payback and supervision order and made subject to sex offender notification requirements. Laing later challenged the decision that there had been a significant sexual aspect to his offending in an attempt to overturn the notification requirement. But the Sheriff Appeal Court rejected his challenge in February this year.
The court found Laing had taken advantage of his access to the child's bedroom and said his behaviour had been "planned and premeditated" when he returned on further occasions. It concluded that the sexual nature of the behaviour justified the original decision that he posed a continuing sexual danger from which the public was entitled to be protected.
NMC Fitness to Practise Hearing
An NMC Fitness to Practise meeting on 20 August heard that Laing had been entrusted with a key to the property solely to care for the family's dog. The regulator said CCTV footage showed him entering the girl's bedroom before later emerging from a bathroom holding what appeared to be a used tissue.
Days later, he was filmed heading straight into the child's bedroom before emerging with a pair of pink underwear in his hand and holding them towards his face. He was arrested on 27 January 2025.
The NMC panel described his behaviour as sexually motivated and repeated and said it amounted to a serious breach of trust. It also found Laing had shown limited insight into his behaviour, provided no evidence of meaningful remediation and that there remained a risk of repetition.
Striking Off and Interim Suspension
Among the aggravating factors considered by the panel were that the conduct happened on more than one occasion, involved a child under 16 and resulted in Laing being placed on the sex offenders register.
The panel said: "The panel concluded that Mr Laing's conduct was fundamentally incompatible with him remaining on the register." It added that anything short of striking him off would fail to protect the public, maintain confidence in the nursing profession and uphold professional standards.
Laing was also handed an interim 18-month suspension order while the striking-off order took effect.
