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A Devon doctor
has been given a seven-month sentence, suspended for two years,
after pleading guilty to downloading child pornography on the internet.
Consultant dermatologist
Dr Paul Collier, 42, from Lympstone, admitted nine charges at an
earlier hearing at Exeter Magistrates' Court.
When the police
searched Dr Collier's house in May, they found two floppy discs
containing nine pornographic photographs of children. He had downloaded
the images from the internet onto his laptop computer.
During the search,
Dr Collier assaulted two police officers. At the time, Dr Collier
was a consultant dermatologist at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital.
Last year, BBC South West's Spotlight programme filmed him as he
treated a Romanian woman for a birth mark. He's now unemployed and
has been suspended by the General Medical Council.
The court heard
that Doctor Collier who has two children had been suffering from
depression because of the pressures of work and the breakdown of
his marriage. The downloading of the images, the court was told,
was a momentary lapse and he had never intended to show them to
anyone else.
The effect on
his career and family had been devastating. He, the court was told,
has had the greatest shock of his life.
In sentencing,
Dr Collier was told that what he had done was grossly depraved and
children needed to be protected against such depravity.
He was given
a seven-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for downloading
the images and assaulting the police officers. He was also placed
on the Sex Offenders' Register.
An investigation
into his work during his nine years at the hospital discovered that
although he had treated children, there was no risk as a nurse or
parent would always have been present.
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