A children's doctor has been jailed for more than two years after being caught with one of the largest hauls of child sexual abuse images ever seen by the National Crime Agency.

David Shaw, 48, from Taunton, was arrested in 2019 at his former address in Maidstone, Kent. National Crime Agency officers discovered that Shaw's 16 devices contained over 1.2 million indecent images of children.

Under interview Shaw confessed that he had been downloading the illegal images since 2005. He described himself as a "criminal" and admitted being attracted to pre-pubescent girls, the Agency said in a statement.

Shaw was convicted on three counts of making and possessing indecent images of children. On February 22 the convicted former paediatrician was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court.

HH Judge Saxby sentenced Shaw to two years and two months in prison, and handed down 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."