A former NHS consultant has been jailed after he was caught with a paedophile manual and over 90,000 images and videos of children on different devices.

Stoke Crown Court was told how Matthew Isles, 53, had built up a "staggeringly vast" collection of material across five years and was found to posses a manual with instructions on how to abuse children.

Mr Isles was employed as an ear, nose and throat specialist at the Royal Stoke University and County Hospital in Stafford before being arrested in February.

Judge Richard McConaghy sentenced Isles to three years and ten months in prison

The 53-year-old also tried to engage in a sexual conversation with who he believed to be a 14-year-old boy, but turned out to be an undercover police officer.

Mr Isles admitted to 13 offences, including attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, making indecent images of children, possessing extreme pornographic images and distributing indecent images of children.

Judge Richard McConaghy sentenced Isles to three years and ten months in prison.

Mr Isles' barrister, Phil Bradley KC, requested that Isles receive a suspended sentence, which the judge labelled as "optimistic".

Stoke Crown Court was told how Matthew Isles, 53, had built up a 'staggeringly vast' collection of material across five years

The judge said: “Each and every image depicts a real child suffering real sexual abuse, some of it of the most depraved kind imaginable.”

Prosecutor Hunter Gray said that Mr Isles had been involved in a “sexually explicit conversation of a grooming nature” with an undercover police officer on a gay dating website in January.

Despite initially ending the conversation after finding out about the age of the boy he thought he was talking with, Isles came back later and spoke about "hooking up".

Mr Gray also revealed to the court that the 53-year-old had voyeuristic images in a folder that was labelled as "Spycam".

The contents of the folder featured him with a female, and while the interaction was consensual, the woman did not know that she had been recorded, the court heard.

Prosecutor Hunter Gray said that Mr Isles had been involved in a 'sexually explicit conversation of a grooming nature' with an undercover police officer

Mr Isles' various devices were stuffed with 1,978 category A images, 1,317 category B images, 2,134 category C images and 459 prohibited images of children, with more being uncategorised.

Mr Gray also revealed to the court that while in a police interview, the former hospital consultant admitted that he had an “addiction to sex, pornography and child abuse material, and an addiction to collecting child sex abuse images”.

Mr Bradley, defending, told the court that the 53-year-old had taken steps to address his actions.

He said: “The criminal behaviour that this defendant is responsible for is reprehensible and seen through the eyes of disgust by right-thinking members of society.

"This man, by his own actions, has authored his own downfall. His is a catastrophic fall from grace.

"He pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, knowing the offences to which he pleaded are indeed serious."

Detective Inspector Alex Glover from Staffordshire Police said: “Isles sought out and hoarded images of the most horrific abuse of children.

“The continued circulation of child sexual abuse material normalises abuse and incentivises the creation of new content.

"We have worked closely with NHS organisations and conducted a thorough investigation into the offences committed by Isles.”