Children’s doctor had 1.2m child sex abuse images
A Maidstone children’s doctor who was found with more than one million child sex abuse images has been jailed.
David Shaw was arrested at his former home in Clifford Way in February 2019 where the National Crime Agency seized one of the “largest hauls” of indecent images it has ever seen. The 48-year-old, who worked as a paediatrician and GP between 2005 and 2013, was found with more than 1.2 million child sex abuse images on 16 devices. Shaw, who most recently lived in Somerset, described himself as a “criminal” and “bad” person to officers before admitting to being sexually attracted to pre-pubescent girls.
The paedophile claimed he became depressed when he tried to stop viewing the child sex abuse images and eventually quit his role as GP.
He was charged with three counts of making and possessing indecent images of children and pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court in October 2022. On Wednesday last week, he was sentenced to two years and two months in prison.
Shaw trained at Guy’s Hospital Medical School and practised as a GP between 2005 and 2013 – including at Wallis Avenue Surgery in Park Wood – after which point his General Medical Council membership lapsed and he no longer worked as a doctor. He admitted to police he had been downloading the pictures since 2005 and had been expecting a visit from law enforcement.
Sentencing him, Judge Oliver Saxby said 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.
NCA senior investigator Tony Smith said: “This is one of the largest collections of child sexual abuse images 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.”
‘Tragically, behind these images are vulnerable children...’