A former doctor with an “unhealthy interest in extreme pornography” has been jailed for more than two years for being in possession of more than 800,000 indecent images of children.

Dr Michael Kennedy, 52, was arrested on March 17 2016 after police received information from an internet provider that internet at an address in Peakirk, near Peterborough, was being used to download indecent images of children.

The address in St Pegas Road was identified as being that of Kennedy’s, a practising doctor at Millfield Medical Centre in Peterborough.

A warrant was carried out at Kennedy’s home address where he made admissions to possessing the images, as suspected. He was arrested and a number of electronic devices were seized.

In total, more than 80 electronic devices were examined, uncovering more than 800,000 indecent images.

Following his arrest he was suspended from practising by the General Medical Council (GMC).

On August 10, Kennedy appeared at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court and pleaded guilty to one count of making category A indecent images of children, one count of making category B indecent images of children, one count of making category C indecent images of children, one count of possessing prohibited images of children, and three counts of possessing extreme pornographic images.

Of the indecent images of children, 2,002 were deemed to be category A, 6,737 category B and 839,349 category C – category A being the worst. There were 43 prohibited images of children, and a total of 478 extreme pornographic images in Kennedy’s possession.

Today (Friday November 11) Kennedy appeared a Cambridge Crown Court and was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison. He has also been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life and made subject of a life-long Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO). He must also forfeit all devices seized by police which were found to have the indecent images on them.

Detective Chief Inspector Neil Sloan, from the Public Protection Department (PPD), said: “While there was no evidence of any contact offending, nor first-generation images; ones which Kennedy had taken himself, it is clear from what was uncovered that Kennedy has an unhealthy interest in indecent images of children and extreme pornography.

“Never in my time as a police officer have I seen such an extensive collection of such images; more than 800,000 individual images all stored, filed and categorised like a library.

“The quantity of imagery recovered in this case makes this the biggest investigation of this type in Cambridgeshire.”