A SURGEON from Salisbury has been convicted of possessing child sexual abuse images.

Mansoor Khan, 54 and of Ridgeway Road, was identified by National Crime Agency investigators after using Snapchat to access the indecent images of children.

He was charged with three counts of making and possessing indecent images of children and convicted at Salisbury Crown Court today (December 23) following a five-day trial.

He was arrested by NCA officers on August 24 last year, at which point he said to his wife, “I used to have Snapchat”.

More: Salisbury surgeon had 106 child abuse images, court hears

His home was searched, along with his office at Salisbury District Hospital.

Officers found 106 indecent images of children (IIOC) in categories A-C (A being the most severe) on Khan’s mobile phone and a hard drive, which were mostly of boys aged between five and seven.

When interviewed, Khan admitted receiving and viewing the IIOC from a contact he’d made on Snapchat. He said he did this out of curiosity and had no intention of promoting, sharing or storing the images.

He admitted searching for ‘Lolita sex’ but denied looking up other terms such as ‘Top 100 little models’, ‘young incest’ and ‘shocking young porn’, despite there being evidence of this on his phone.

He denied having any screenshots of the images he’d obtained on his phone, but forensic analysis uncovered three IIOC files which included the name ‘screenshot’  in them.

More: Mansoor Khan: Salisbury surgeon denies making child sexual abuse pictures

He had sourced these from Wickr Me, a private instant messaging application allowing the exchange of end-to-end encrypted and content-expiring messages, including photos, videos and files.

Khan also used the TOR browser (which allows anonymous browsing and access to the dark web) to search for drugs he was curious about, and that his mobile phone contained a secure folder to store pornographic images of adults. However, he denied using these for child abuse material.

He was convicted of the following offences:

  • One count of making and possessing indecent photograph’s/Pseudo photographs of a child, namely 31 category A images
  • One count of making and possessing indecent photograph’s/Pseudo photographs of a child, namely 14 category B images
  • One count of making and possessing indecent photograph’s/Pseudo photographs of a child, namely 61 category C images

He has now been placed on the Sex Offenders Register. and is due to be sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court on Friday, February 24, 2023.

NCA Operations Manager Richard Deakin said: “Mansoor Khan abused his position of trust.

“By downloading these images he demonstrated a sexual interest in children and helped fuel the sickening demand for this kind of material.

“He denied ever taking screenshots of images on his phone, but our investigation showed this simply wasn’t true.

“The NCA continues to pursue offenders like Khan, to bring them to justice and protect victims of online child sexual abuse.”

Khan has been dismissed by Salisbury NHS Foundation trust. The offences he has been convicted of do not relate to any of his patients.