Depraved nurse kept hoard of sick images and shared obscene stories about children with paedophiles

A depraved nurse who ran a respiratory ward during the Covid crisis turned to online sex offences for 'comfort' - keeping a hoard of sick images and sharing obscene stories about children.

Rebecca Ruler, 32, kept a hoard of sadistic child abuse images and published sick sexual articles about children and babies for a group of paedophiles, a court heard. When Ruler's crimes came to light, she was struck off the nursing register by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Preston Crown Court heard that Ruler had been on the frontline of the Covid crisis, working as a ward manager at Royal Bolton Hospital. Kim Obrusik, defending, said: "It was the worst time in recent history that someone could be working on those wards."

But, prosecuting, Peter Barr said: "It was she who initiated the discussions by expressing her sexual interest in children. There was no evidence of coercion."

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Ruler has now been handed a suspended prison sentence, reports LancsLive. Mr Barr told Preston Crown Court that between April 2021 and April 2022, Ruler downloaded 151 category A child abuse pictures, along with a further 101 at category B and 134 category C images.

She also created five obscene articles into an internet chat with five paedophiles. When questioned, she claimed the conversation was instigated by a man she was in an online relationship with and she was using the chat to impress him.

Ms Obrusik said Ruler had mild depression which was aggravated by her work, as she saw patients she had cared for dying alone, without their family or friends, on a daily basis. "As we come out of the pandemic it is easy to forget the horrors of what was occurring. The demands,