A south London NHS midwife who downloaded and shared hundreds of pornographic images of children has been spared jail.

Scott Butler, 39, from Lambeth, who worked at Tooting's St George's Hospital, was found to have more than 400 indecent images of male and female children between the ages of four and 13.

Yesterday, at Inner London Crown Court, Butler was sentenced to 12 months in custody suspended for 18 months, having previously pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of a child and two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images.

Wandsworth Times: Inner London Crown Court Inner London Crown Court (Image: Wikimedia/Stephen Richards)

The CPS applied for a sexual harm prevention order and the details of this will be set out at a further hearing.

Butler was arrested on December 3, 2020, at St George’s Hospital.

His phone and laptop were seized from his home address and found to contain around 360 indecent moving images of children and 77 still images.

Kate Shilton, from the CPS, said: “Scott Butler was a registered NHS midwife who came into contact with young children every day in a London hospital.

"But unknown to anyone, he had a large collection of pornographic images of children as young as four years old.

“Butler was caught out after uploading images to a social networking website, which police were able to trace back to him.

"He was arrested while working. The prosecution case included evidence from a forensic analysis of Butler’s devices, which showed the extent of his interest in preadolescent children.

“Crimes against children are abhorrent and the CPS will always seek to bring to justice those who fuel the sexual exploitation of children.”

Have you got a story for us? You can contact us here.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news.

Sign up to our newsletters to get updates sent straight to your inbox.