A Scottish pediatrician has been struck off from practicing after being found guilty of sending images of his penis to a child. Dr. Thomas O’Neill worked in the Accident and Emergency department of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP) in Edinburgh, Scotland.
O’Neill was found guilty of indecent communications with a 15-year-old boy at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in February of 2025, as reported by local news. The crimes spanned from November of 2019 to May of 2020, when O’Neill sent indecent messages and images to a boy who was 14-years-old at the time.
The disgraced Doctor was reportedly introduced to the child by a colleague at his work. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing was told how in November 2019, O’Neill was driving a car and asked the child, who was a passenger, how he masturbated.
O’Neill then pursued the boy through social media apps, sending vile messages to the child on WhatsApp and Snapchat, with the pedophile pediatrician sending pictures of his penis to the minor.
The predator then discussed with the boy how he was purchasing “sex toys” and later arrived at the child’s home and attempted to give him a “silicone device.”
Local reports describe how the boy attempted to protect himself by “blocking” the doctor on social media, but O’Neill was unrelenting and made fake profiles with male and female names in attempts to reengage the child in conversation. One fake male username was used as a disguise to sexually interrogate the boy. While using the account, O’Neill proceeded to ask the minor if he was gay, and then sent him photos of his penis and asked him if he recognized it.
Despite being found guilty of the appalling crime, O’Neill avoided a custodial sentence entirely and was given 18 months community service during a sentencing hearing in March of 2025.
This week, O’Neill, 37, was found to be impaired and his license to practice was erased during a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing. Upon hearing of O’Neill’s crimes, the Tribunal decided to ban Thomas O’Neill from working in his profession and remove him from the medical register. The Tribunal made his name known due to public interest and safety and the“need to maintain the reputation of the profession as a whole.”
Prior to being found guilty of indecent communications, O’Neill was active as an advocate for LGBT equality in healthcare, with a particular emphasis on “LGBT+ youth.”
O’Neill was responsible for “equalities and diversity for NHS Lothian’s Medical Education Directorate “ and was described as “[working] to help clinicians and supervisors better support LGBTQ+ students and trainees, through his role as associate faculty of the Clinical Educator Programme.”
It looks like he did… https://t.co/hrHXtODtCj pic.twitter.com/IMsev1JjLC
— For Women Scotland (@ForWomenScot) February 21, 2026
Additionally, O’Neill was employed previously as a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh where he was a prominent face in their Youtube videos themed around supporting LGBT staff. The videos have now been deleted after the Daily Record made contact with the University. Edinburgh declined to comment to the tabloid, and NHS Lothian declined to comment on the individual member of staff, but the paper believes that O’Neill no longer works for the Health Board.
In 2017, O’Neill co-authored a paper on the challenges “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) young people” face in accessing health care. The paper described two case scenarios, one involving a 13-year-old gay boy and another involving a 14-year-old boy who identified as a “girl,” and challenged pediatricians on how to better accommodate such patients in their practices.
In 2021, O’Neill was a key speaker at the University of Edinburgh’s LGBT+ History Month event on “creating equity in healthcare for LGBT+ people.” A video featuring his speech has since been scrubbed from Open Educational Resources.
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