Do you think posting online hate has no offline consequences? Think again, a nurse at South Tyneside Hospital was struck off after her racist anti-Muslim Facebook rants were reported to hospital management.
Lisa Marie Kane self-identified as a staff nurse and used her Facebook page to post abuse aimed towards Muslim patients after a visit to Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.
Examples of her racist and offensive Facebook posts included:
‘Never seen to many muslims. More in there than Kabul. STUNK’
‘I’m not employed to GET RID of ideology. I’ve got a mind of my own, unlik the brainwashed muslims. GET them out of my country.’
‘They chop our bruthas heads off, rape our sisters & see us as S***’
The comments were posted on June 19 2013 and later reported to hospital management. At a disciplinary meeting in October of that year, she was dismissed from South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust. Now, following a conduct hearing by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in London, Ms Kane was struck off from her profession.
Per the investigation, the panel was shown screenshots of Kane’s Facebook posts, alongside a transcript where Kane admitted posting the comments at an earlier internal investigation.
Other staff members warned Kane about the nature of her comments and management sent her emails about using Facebook appropriately. But it did not deter her from posting further vitriol.
The panel found her guilty on two counts: of posting inappropriate content on Facebook and that the comments were racist in nature.
Robert Barnwell, chairman of the NMC panel, concluded: “The panel determined that the act of posting racially offensive comments, borne out of deep seated attitudinal views, was abhorrent.
“The panel finds that Miss Kane’s actions fell seriously short of the conduct and standards expected of a nurse and amounted to serious misconduct.”
Ms Kane has a 28-day period to lodge any appeal (with an interim ban already in place).