'Abhorrent and disgusting' psychiatrist jailed in Guernsey for indecent images of children

Former States psychiatrist Greg Lydall has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for four counts of possessing indecent images of children and seven counts of making indecent images of children.

The 44-year-old had pleaded guilty to the offences earlier this year, which involved nearly 5000 indecent images of children.

More than 4000 pictures were ‘pseudo images’, which are computer generated images and more than 700 were described as ‘live’ images, which means real images of children. The court heard some featured children believed to be as young as three years old, and three of these images fell into the most severe category.

In mitigation Greg Lydall's advocate, Peter Ferbrache, argued Lydall had an addiction to pornography which had escalated over the years. He likened it to a heroin addiction, in which the tolerance increases over time and said after his arrest Lydall had sought help for what Peter Ferbrache described as an illness.

As a psychiatrist Greg Lydall treated some of the most vulnerable people in the island and was an addiction specialist. The presiding judge Deputy Bailiff Richard McMahon said it is not known what the adverse impact of Lydall’s offending coming to light has had on his former patients.

He said child porngraphy is exploitative and the subjects of the images are the real victims. He called Lydall's crimes abhorrent and disgusting.

The Committee for Health and Social Care issued the following statement.