Myles Bradbury: Paedophile doctor jailed for 22 years for abusing cancer patients as young as 10

Blood-cancer specialist abused 18 children in his care at a Cambridge hospital

A paedophile doctor who abused 18 vulnerable young cancer patients has been sentenced to 22 years in jail.

Myles Bradbury, 41, from Herringswell, Suffolk, worked as a paediatric consultant haematologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where he carried out medical examinations on boys "purely for his own sexual gratification", Cambridge Crown Court heard.

All of his victims suffered from leukaemia, haemophilia or other serious conditions. Some have since died.

Bradbury pleaded guilty to 25 offences over a four-year period, including sexual assault, voyeurism and possessing more than 16,000 indecent images, against boys aged between 10 and 16.

The blood cancer specialist filmed some of his victims using a spy pen and abused others behind a curtain while their parents were in the room.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Gareth Hawkesworth said: “I have never come cross a more “culpable and grave course of sexual criminality which has involved such a gross and grotesque breach and betrayal of your Hippocratic Oath and trust reposed in you by your patients, their families and colleagues.

"Your actions have undermined public trust in an already overstretched health service and have caused enormous expense and upheaval in the internal inquiries that inevitably followed your suspension from practice.”

He said Bradbury had likely caused his victims “considerable psychological harm […] which I suspect will linger with them for the rest of their lives”.

The offences began within six months of him taking up his post in 2008 and continued to the day he was suspended when the first concerns were raised.

Police found 170,425 images on this pen but none of these were classed as indecent.

At some point, he began using a camera pen in an attempt to gain images of the boys when partially clothed, Prosecutor John Farmer told the court.

Mr Farmer explained Bradbury was first arrested in December 2013 after police were alerted by Canadian authorities that he had bought a DVD containing indecent images of children as part of Operation Spade.

At that point Cambridgeshire Police were already investigating after concerns were raised about his conduct.

Bradbury, who, the court heard, was also involved in church and Scout groups, was described as "a man of great charm and persuasiveness" whom everybody trusted.

When one victim raised concerns with his mother, she responded: "He's a doctor, it must be necessary."

Bradbury will never see his daughter again unsupervised and will never work as a doctor again.

In mitigation, Angela Rafferty said Bradbury's guilty pleas had spared his victims the ordeal of giving evidence in court.

She added: "Clearly on a human level something has gone very badly wrong in this man's life and thought processes."

She said Bradbury seemed to have repressed homosexual feelings during puberty and this influenced his behaviour.

Additional reporting by PA