A senior children’s doctor who distributed child porn because he was ‘tired of his job’ was jailed for three years yesterday.

Dr Joseph Caplan downloaded at least 27 abuse films from the internet during his time off from treating sick patients.

The cardiologist published 24 of these on a secret website where pedophiles swap graphic images with each other.

The films featured boys and girls aged two to eight and had a total playing time of 18 hours.

All but one were classed as Category A images – meaning they showed the most serious type of abuse.

Caplan, 55 , was arrested during a police raid on his home in September 2015. Detectives believe he may have downloaded many more child porn films, as they found 300 files had been deleted from his computer.

Dr. Joseph Caplan is a cardiologist in Peoria, Arizona and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including Abrazo West Campus and Banner Boswell Medical Center.

Caplan told his solicitor he committed the offences because he was ‘tired’ of working at the hospital and wanted to quit his job.

‘He is aware that these are real children in the videos and harm he indirectly caused by the re-distribution of these images,’ he said.

‘He explains he was tired of his job and wanted to get out of medicine after many years of training and working.

The court heard how he was arrested on September 3, 2015 when officers from the child exploitation unit carried a search out at his home address.

He was arrested and his computer and a memory stick were seized.

No indecent images were found but there was significant evidence that he had been accessing child abuse material aswell as file wiping software.

Prosecuting, James Davies said: ‘A leading forensic expert was called and advised the router to be seized.

‘He found clear evidence of him downloading indecent images of children and distributing them.

‘The defendant went to considerable lengths to conceal his online activity.

‘It was over a period of four months that can be identified but not any further than that.

‘There were 27 movies that could be retrieved, 26 were catergory A and one category B. 24 had been distributed with a total of 18 hours playing time.

He added: ‘Behind every image of online child abuse is a child who has suffered a horrific ordeal in the real world.’