Midwife who downloaded hundreds of indecent pictures of children avoids jail

An NHS midwife who downloaded and shared hundreds of indecent images of children has been sentenced.

Scott Butler, 39, was found to have more than 400 indecent images of male and female children between the ages of four and 13.

Butler, of Broxholm Road, West Norwood, was sentenced to 12 months’ in custody suspended for 18 months at Inner London Crown Court on Monday.

The Crown Prosecution Service has applied for a sexual harm prevention order and the details of this will be set out at a further hearing. Butler, who worked at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of a child and two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images.

He was arrested on December 3 last year at St George’s. His phone and laptop were seized from his home address and found to contain about 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.”