An ex-GP and paediatrician caught with “one of the largest hauls of child sexual abuse images” ever seen by UK investigators has been jailed for more than two years.

Former children’s doctor David Shaw, 48, was caught with 1.2 million indecent images across 16 different devices when officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) raided his home in February 2019.

Shaw, from Taunton, Somerset, attempted to use anonymisation techniques on the peer-to-peer sharing network Freenet to download the pictures.

However, NCA investigators were still able to establish his identity before raiding his then-home, in Maidstone, Kent.

When interviewed by officers, Shaw admitted that he had been downloading the images since 2005, the year he began practicing as a GP, specialising in paediatrics.

He told officers he had stopped working as a doctor in 2013, after becoming “depressed” when attempting to stop viewing the images.

Shaw, who trained at Guy’s Hospital Medical School and graduated in 2004, described himself to officers as a “criminal” and a “bad” person, and admitted to being sexually attracted to young girls.

He also told officers during his interview that had been expecting a visit from law enforcement at some point.

On Wednesday, Shaw was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court to two years and two months in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of making and possessing indecent images of children.

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In sentencing, Judge Oliver Saxby said that as a specialist in paediatrics, Shaw would have been aware of the harm inflicted on the children in the images he downloaded.

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

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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