A former children’s doctor has been jailed for keeping around 1.28 million indecent images of children.

David Shaw, 48, admitted being attracted to pre-pubescent girls after he was arrested at home in Maidstone, Kent, in February 2019.

The paedophile, who was a GP between 2005 and 2013, started collecting the horrific content in 2005.

He used anonymous sharing techniques on data sharing network Freenet to download the images.

When he was caught, he said he had been expecting a visit from law enforcement at some point.

He described himself as a ‘criminal’ and a ‘bad’ person and said he became depressed when he tried to stop looking at the images.

Shaw, who moved to Taunton, Somerset, eventually stopped working as a GP.

He was charged with three counts of making and possessing indecent images of children and pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court on October 18 last year.

He was jailed for two years and two months at the same court on Wednesday.

Shaw was also made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

Judge Saxby commented on how, as a specialist in paediatrics, Shaw would have been acutely aware of the harm such images of children would cause.

National Crime Agency (NCA) senior investigator Tony Smith said: ‘This is one of the largest collections of child sexual abuse images that the NCA has ever dealt with, the scale of which was shocking.

‘Not only did Shaw abuse his position of trust, he helped fuel the sickening trade in child sexual abuse images by downloading this material, which re-victimises every child.

‘Tragically, behind these images are vulnerable children being exploited just to satisfy paedophiles.

‘The NCA continues to pursue offenders like Shaw, make them accountable for their actions and to protect victims of online child sexual abuse.’

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