Ex-GP jailed over child porn

Michael Dovey downloaded images of children

A retired GP was jailed for six months on Tuesday after admitting downloading child pornography from the internet.

Michael Dovey had admitted 13 specimen counts of making indecent photographs of children at a previous hearing.

Bristol Crown Court heard how the 63-year-old of Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, downloaded 1,301 film clips or photographs of children, some aged just four.

More than 400 involved child torture and bondage.

Dovey was charged after an investigation by Avon and Somerset Police officers working under Operation Ricochet, part of an international investigation into internet child porn.

Denied knowledge

He was traced as a payer and subscriber to web sites and his home was searched in December 2002.

Prosecuting counsel Robert Davies said when Dovey was arrested he denied all knowledge of the web sites and tried to blame builders who had been working on his home.

He told police he found the whole thing "abhorrent".

Dovey, who retired from his work at a practice in Keynsham near Bath, in 1998, did not react as sentence was passed.

Judge Michael Harington said: "As a result of downloading such images for your own gratification and therefore creating a demand for such material, young and very young children are inevitably abused and corrupted."

Dovey was jailed for six months and put on an extended licence for two years.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders' register and to pay £1,000 towards defence costs.