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A former senior doctor at Sir Charles Gairdner hospital has been arrested after police allegedly found him in possession of child exploitation material.
Peter Charles Swift, 68, was arrested on Tuesday after police conducted a search of his multi-million dollar Dalkeith property.
Swift was the head of the nuclear medicine department at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and formerly a consultant nuclear physician at Princess Margaret Hospital.
He specialised in general nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography and nuclear medicine therapy to treat benign and malignant thyroid disease, neuroendocrine tumours and lymphoma.
On Wednesday, a North Metropolitan Health spokeswoman said he was no longer employed at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
During his first court appearance that same day, police prosecutors said they seized 22 devices from Swift’s home that contained videos and photos of real life and AI-generated children engaging in sexual activity.
Those devices included multiple laptops, PCs, an iPad, phones and hard drives allegedly depicting category 1 and category 2 levels of child exploitation material.
Police alleged there were AI-generated videos of children engaging in sex activity that Swift produced himself. Other videos allegedly found were of real life female children under the age of 13.
Swift was charged with two counts of possessing child exploitation material and one charge of producing child exploitation material and kept in custody overnight before appearing in Perth Magistrates Court.
He appeared in the dock without shoes and looked disoriented as he spoke to the magistrate.
A duty lawyer tried to make an application for bail on Swift’s behalf, but prosecutors asked for a week’s adjournment so the rest of the seized devices could be properly analysed.
“Police highly suspect there will be more charges,” he said, before adding that prosecutors felt bail was inappropriate given he was “the head of department at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, in a position of power and had a Working with Children’s Check.”
Shift’s lawyer argued he had no criminal history and had been employed for over 30 years as a nuclear physicist.
“He is a very suitable candidate for bail,” she said.
“Incredibly strenuous conditions could be put in place.”
But magistrate Adam Hills-Wright said it was appropriate to defer an application for bail so that police could further examine the devices seized.
Swift was remanded in custody to appear again on July 1.
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