A HOSPITAL worker who ‘joked’ about keeping human body parts in his freezer for work he was not qualified to do has been struck off by the Health Profession Council.

John Gough pretended to have passed a diploma in orthopaedics and researched at the University of Liverpool Hospital for five years, during which time he joked to his colleague at Warrington Hospital that he was storing body parts at home.

This week the council had heard how Gough worked as an operating department practitioner helping anaesthetists at Warrington Hospital since 1995, which he was qualified to do, but also spent time working in orthopaedics at the University of Liverpool Hospital – something he never passed his exams for.

It was while working at the hospital, on Lovely Lane, with colleague Paul McCue that Gough boasted about the human remains in his freezer.

In a statement, Mr McCue said: “I was working with John on call. He happened to mention he had the lower half of human bodies at his home.

“He said they were kept in a chest freezer and proceeded to tell me he used them for research and development in pursuance of research and development in orthopaedics.

“I said I hoped they were kept away from food and he said they were in a freezer in his garage.”

Mr McCue reported the matter to hospital bosses who contacted police, but despite a search of Gough’s home nothing controversial was ever found.

It was then that Gough was uncovered as a fraud, five years after failing his diploma in orthopaedics from the University of Dundee in 2003.

He had allegedly told colleagues at Warrington Hospital he had passed the course and ‘was a real doctor now’, but finally owned up to his ‘spiral of lies’ at a disciplinary hearing, saying: “I had no choice but to say I’d passed [the diploma] just to save face.

“Indeed the same was true with my wife and family,” he said.

“I’d taken up all this time and money [going to Dundee].

“I had to dig myself into a hole which I never got out of.”

Elizabeth Taheri, for the HPC, said Gough was sacked in February last year after he was allegedly revealed as a liar.

Gough could have converted a pass in the orthopaedic rehabilitation technology diploma into a masters degree on completion.

But he failed the diploma and claimed he had a masters.

At a later meeting with Prof Simon Frostick at the University of Liverpool, Gough was introduced as having a PhD in biomechanics.

He was subsequently offered work as an honorary research fellow, but Prof Frostick became concerned about his qualifications, the council heard, and wrote to Gough who came clean.

By this time he also had an associate professorship at the University of Malaya, which was then terminated.

Gough, of Langford Road, Northwich, was accused of misleading the University of Liverpool, the University of Malaya and North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust, misleading trust staff in meetings and interviews, falsely claiming he had taken a masters degree and saying he had body parts in a freezer.

Gough, who did not attend the hearing, also faced a charge that his fitness to practice was impaired.

Ms Taheri said: “He misled the university of Liverpool and the North Cheshire NHST Trust.

“Even if he hadn’t put himself forward as having this qualification, he certainly misled by omitting to set the record straight and failed to correct a false impression.”

Gough was struck off, the board having said it had no option.

A spokesman for Warrington Hospital said: "While this issue had no effect on his job at the trust which was to a good standard, staff at the hospital became suspicious about the claims being made around his qualifications and research and development work being undertaken elsewhere.

"After being asked to give evidence of his qualifications he was claiming and details of his other roles elsewhere, he resigned from working at the trust, albeit on health grounds.

"The claims about body parts – while later stated to be said in jest and proved untrue – were obviously concerning and were deemed serious enough to alert the relevant authorities at the time and to continue with investigations after he had left the trust."