Paediatrician caught with one of the biggest hauls of child abuse images ever seen

David Shaw admitted to being sexually attracted to young girls and described himself as a ‘criminal’ and a ‘bad’ person Credit: National Crime Agency

A former GP and paediatrician has been caught with one of the largest hauls of child sexual abuse images the National Crime Agency has ever seen.

David Shaw, 48, from Taunton in Somerset, tried to hide his identity on a peer-to-peer sharing network to download indecent images of children but officers were able to work out who he was.

Shaw was arrested in February 2019 at his former home in Maidstone, Kent.

His devices were seized and forensic examination showed 16 of them contained 1,278,256 indecent images of children. The images were in categories A-C, with A being the most severe.

Shaw trained at Guy’s Hospital Medical School and graduated in 2004. He was registered with the General Medical Council and practised as a GP between 2005 and 2013, after which point his membership lapsed and he no longer worked as a doctor.

When interviewed, Shaw admitted that he had been downloading indecent images since 2005, and had been expecting a visit from law enforcement at some point.

He described himself as a ‘criminal’ and a ‘bad’ person and admitted to being sexually attracted to pre-pubescent girls. He added that he became depressed when he tried to stop viewing the images and stopped working as a GP at this point.

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

He has now been sentenced to two years and two months in prison.

His Honour Judge Saxby commented that as a specialist in paediatrics, Shaw more than others would have been aware of the harm inflicted on the children in the images he downloaded.

He also handed Shaw a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

National Crime Agency 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."