A psychiatric nurse has been struck off for admitting to having a relationship with a patient almost a decade after it was initially discovered.

Trudy Megan Davies, who worked at Broadmoor Hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, started the relationship with the patient while working on a ward for patients with serious personality disorders.

She was seen to be exchanging gifts with this patient in the high-security psychiatric ward.

An internal investigation led to her resignation after they found out about the relationship.

The relationship then seemed to end during the investigation and resignation.

The patient was transferred to another secure unit in another county for assessment but staff noticed he was spending hours at a time on the phone.

He would not say who he was speaking to and "as [he] would not provide the information requested", he was transferred back to Broadmoor.

In 2022, more than a decade later, she told a colleague at the Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Trust that the relationship with the former patient had resumed.

She was reported to the nursing regulator.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said her misconduct "put patients, colleagues, the public and the security of the hospital at risk".

Miss Davies accepted her actions were "a severe breach of trust and professionalism" and "distorted" the patient's view of her as a nurse.

She told the NMC that the pair were "maintaining [their] relationship and looking to build a future together".

The NMC's panel said she had prioritised that relationship over her career and that allowing her to practise as a nurse "would undermine public confidence in the profession".