Chester Crown Court was told how police found around 5,000 indecent images, including 1,200 of children, when they took a computer from the Dr Robert Arwel Jones's home near Llandudno.

Married family man Jones, 34, had downloaded the images from the Internet, and on two of them, he had superimposed a picture of his own naked body next to pictures of children.

The judge, Recorder Peter Hughes QC, said there was growing public concern about pornography, especially involving children, and although Jones had sought help for his problem, there was no option but to send him to prison.

Innocent victims

He said he had brought shame on himself and his family.

"Just what could lead a man of such intelligence and experience to do that sort of thing is hard to imagine.

"Victims of what you have done involve your wife and your family. They have had to suffer for you and they will continue to suffer for you.

"There are other innocent victims of your sort of behaviour and they are the children involved in this material."

Obsession

Jones, who ran a centre for alternative therapy at Colwyn Bay in north Wales at the time of the offences, had two previous convictions for indecent exposure, and will be required to register under the Sex Offenders Act, for seven years.

Oscar del Fabbro, defending, said the case involved the doctor's "human frailties" and a personality disorder which could only be described "as an obsession".