NHS midwife at St George's Hospital spared jail over child porn

An NHS midwife from Lambeth who downloaded and shared hundreds of pornographic images of children has been spared jail.

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

On Monday 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.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) applied for a sexual harm prevention order, for which the details will be set out a further hearing.

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

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, a Senior Crown Prosecutor within the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences unit in CPS South London, 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."