Paedophile anaesthetist's sentence appeal dismissed

An anaesthetist who took indecent images of an unconscious young girl in hospital has had an appeal against the length of his jail term dismissed.

The Court of Appeal heard Edward Finn, 37, committed "about as egregious a breach of trust as can be imagined" when he took pictures of the girl and of an adult patient while anaesthetised under his care.

Finn admitted one count of sexual assault of a child under 13, three counts of making indecent photographs of children, three counts of taking indecent photographs of children, and two counts of voyeurism.

After pleading guilty at Nottingham Crown Court, Finn was sentenced in June 2024 to eight years in jail with an extended licence of four years.

His appeal against the sentence was dismissed at the Court of Appeal in London.

Mr Justice Johnson, sitting with Lord Justice Fraser and Judge Martin Picton, said Finn's offences took place between 2014 and 2023.

He was discovered after his wife found images of naked children on an old iPad, in a folder labelled "hidden", the judge said.

Further investigations into all of Finn's devices revealed thousands of indecent images of children, including more than a hundred in the most serious category, and images of an adult and a child taken during the course of his work.

Finn, from Hollygate Lane, Cotgrave, told officers he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after a girl he was treating had died.

Andrew Wesley, for Finn, said at the appeal hearing on Friday the sentence was too long because of "the mathematics" of how it was reached.

But the judges dismissed the appeal.

Mr Justice Johnson, dismissing the appeal, said the sentence was "not wrong in principle or manifestly excessive" and added: "This was about as egregious a breach of trust as can be imagined."

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