Gary Lawrence 53

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A trainee doctor has been jailed for sexually assaulting a young girl during a medical examination at an NHS surgery in Plymouth. Dr Gary Lawrence had a secret attraction to young children and was separately caught by a police undercover operation in which he sent explicit fantasies about child sex to a decoy officer on a chat site.

Lawrence, aged 53, retrained as a doctor in his 40s. He was working at a clinic in Plymouth as one of the final stages of his training when he assaulted the child in 2021. The girls mother was present at the examination and realised that there was no proper medical reason for Lawrence to touch her daughters genitals.

A judge at Exeter Crown Court today praised the mother for helping to bring Lawrence to justice and apologised for the delay of more than two years since the crime was committed in June 2021

Recorder Mr Donald Tait jailed Lawrence for eight and a half years and told him: It is hard to conceive a more flagrant and serious breach of trust than this.

Lawrence, aged 53, of Honicknowle, Plymouth, denied sexual assault but was found guilty at a trial at Plymouth Crown Court in July. He admitted publishing two obscene article, and five counts of making, by downloading, indecent images of children.

He made asexual harm prevention order which will prohibit any unsupervised contact with children for the rest of his life and put him on the sex offenders register for life. Lawrence will also be banned from working with children by the Declaration and Barring Service.

The judge told Lawrence: Despite your denials throughout the trial that you had no sexual interest in young children, the evidence suggested very clearly otherwise. Before the sexual assault, it is quite clear that you spent a significant period of time accessing indecent images of children and also engaged with an undercover officer.

Your private viewing of indecent images online crept into your professional life and you committed the sexual assault. It is hard to conceive a more flagrant and serious breach of trust than this. This offence is aggravated by the extreme breach of trust and the young age if the victim.

The girls mother and her family were in court and the Judge told her: On behalf of the court, I thank you for your dedication to see this man was brought to justice. It was thanks to you this was achieved. I hope you have some element of closure by the sentences I have imposed upon him.

Mr Rowan Jenkins, prosecuting, said the sexual assault happened in June 2021 and the police investigation showed he had downloaded 15,000 images or movies showing child abuse, of which 386 movies and 1,410 photos fell into the worst category.

Many of the images were of toddlers and very young children, some of whom appeared to be in distress. The mother of the child who was abused at the surgery wrote a victim impact statement saying she had suffered such severe anxiety and depression that she had been forced to stop work.

Mr Deni Matthews, defending, said he started looking at images online at a time when he was drinking too much and was drawn into accessing more and more extreme material before committing the contact offence.

He said: He understands he will receive a significant sentence. His career has ended and everything positive in his life has ended.

Police welcomed the sentence after the case. Detective Chief Inspector Simon Foster, from Devon and Cornwall Police Paedophile Online Investigation Team [POLIT], said: We are really pleased with todays sentence. The offences committed by Lawrence are the most despicable and abhorrent breaches of trust imaginable by a doctor.

He was working in a position of high responsibility where he had a duty to protect children and young people. He chose to abuse that trust and used his position to sexually assault a child.

Furthermore, Lawrence was in possession of an extremely large collection of indecent images of all categories, including images of children and extreme pornography involving animals. Of those, 2,000 were Category A images which are the most serious in nature.

A prison sentence is the only appropriate outcome for such serious offending and I welcome todays sentence. I would like to thank the victim and their family for the courage they have shown in reporting this matter. Theyve shown true strength and continual determination to see justice served in this difficult investigation.

Specialist POLIT officers have worked closely with them, providing ongoing support throughout. We have also received close support from the NHS during this investigation.

I also wish to show my huge appreciation to the investigation team, headed by Detective Sergeant Hannah Spencer and case officer Detective Constable Alicia Smith. They worked tirelessly on a difficult and emotive investigation, putting in many extra hours to ensure justice was served against this dangerous individual.

I hope this result will provide reassurance to other victims of sexual offences and give them confidence to come forward. We want victims to know that their account will be believed, they will be supported, and we will do our utmost to hold offenders to account for their actions.

This case sends a strong message to those using the internet for deviant purposes that we have the capability to use advanced technology and specially trained detectives to uncover the truth and bring offenders to justice. We are watching and we will catch you."