Radiography lecturer convicted
Cathy Westbrook, well known for her pioneering MRI work, has been convicted after pleading guilty to possessing Ecstasy and amphetamines.
A senior lecturer at the Institute of Health and Social Care, Department of Allied Health and Counselling, Anglia Polytechnic University and author of a number of leading textbooks on MRI techniques and practice, Ms Westbrook appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court, Holloway Road, London and was sentenced to 75 hours of community service and ordered to pay £50 costs.
She claims to have had no knowledge of the drugs found at her home. According to a report in the Daily Mail and the Cambridge Evening News, Ms Westbrook was advised by her solicitor to plead guilty. She is quoted as saying that an individual was arrested in London “with the drugs in his possession.” The police searched her house the next day.
According to the Daily Mail she said: “The knowledge of possession by somebody who is in the same property is tantamount to you possessing it but I feel it is rather draconian. I think they were trying to make a bit of an example of me.”
Synergy News contacted Ms Westbrook and she said, “The HPC (Health Professions Council) is currently reviewing my registration and therefore I am making no further comments about my case to the media which has already been reported in the national press outlining the mitigating circumstances.”
Reports say that her employer was unaware of the prosecution until the national media reported the conviction.
Cathy Westbrook was formerly education and research co-ordinator in MRI for the University Department of Radiology, Oxford and deputy superintendent radiographer at the Oxford MRI Centre. She has worked in MRI since 1990 and is a visiting fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. She has an MSc in MRI and a Fellowship in Advanced MRI. Ms Westbrook has taught on the Oxford and Somerset MRI courses, as well as being the author of MRI in Practice, Handbook of MRI Technique and MRI at a Glance. She is a past president of the British Association of MR Radiographers, chair of the Consortium for the Accreditation of Clinical MR Education, and was Honorary Secretary of the British Institute of Radiology.
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