A STAUNCH member of a North-East local amateur dramatics scene has been banned from working as a chiropodist after he was convicted of sexually abusing two teenage girls.

Maurice McShane, 54, persuaded his first victim to engage in sexual acts with him and twice groped the second girl in his car while it was parked outside a hotel in County Durham.

McShane had been involved in amateur dramatics for more than 20 years, playing roles for Seaham’s Vane Tempest Theatre Group and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society in South Shields, South Tyneside.

He admitted four charges of sexual indecency with a child, sexual activity with a child, and sexual assault of a child.

McShane, from Seaham, County Durham, was jailed for six years and one month at Durham Crown Court last March.

Speaking after his conviction, his first victim said the attack left her sick and made her feel it was all her fault.

She said: “I was clever, ambitious, but vulnerable.

“He made me feel adult before I was. I was used and manipulated by him, and for that I feel like an idiot, like it was all my fault.”

He sexually assaulted his second victim after parking near the Seaham Hall Hotel.

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) found that his actions were intentional, prolonged, and incompatible with his continuing to practise.

Banning him from the profession, HCPC panel chairman William Nelson said: “There were elements of grooming and abuse of trust.

“The registrant’s offending took place over a number of years.

“He has shown no remorse for his past offending and no insight into the seriousness of his offences.

‘”The only proportionate and appropriate sanction is one of striking off.”

McShane, who was not present at the hearing in central London, was banned from the profession.