A CHILDREN'S charity has backed the conviction of a "depraved" heart surgeon found with thousands of extreme pornographic images, including hundreds of children.

Dr Ahmed Sayed worked at Southampton General Hospital until he was sacked after a police investigation found him having numerous videos depicting child abuse, including one which involved a baby boy aged between six and nine-months-old.

Southampton Crown Court heard last week that Sayed's career was in ruins after he developed a "morbid curiosity" for the explicit material.

A spokesperson for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said of the 40-year-old's conviction: "To the outside world Sayed appeared to be a gifted surgeon who saved lives but the reality was that behind closed doors he was a depraved individual fuelling an appalling online trade.

"Behind each of the photos or films he viewed, possessed and distributed was a child who had been abused in the real world in order for it to be created.

"Each will need to support to overcome what has happened to them and it is only right that Sayed has been brought to justice for his actions."

In total, when officers searched his home, he was caught with 5,177 extreme photographs as well as 84 moving images in category A, as well as hundreds more in lower categories.

Sayed was dismissed from Southampton General Hospital following his arrest.

He has subsequently been suspended from the Medical Register and is not allowed to practise as a doctor in the UK.

The court heard that Sayed had moved to the UK five years-ago after training to be a heart surgeon in his native Egypt.

He graduated from Cairo University in 2001 and was a registered doctor in the UK by 2010.

At an earlier hearing, Sayed pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of children, extreme pornography and prohibited images of a child, as well as distribute indecent photographs.

Sayed, who’s address cannot be given out for legal reasons, was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years.

A sexual harm prevention order was signed and will be in place for the next 10 years.

Following the sentence, a spokesperson for University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust said Sayed was suspended immediately when the trust was made aware of the allegations that he was never unsupervised with children during his time with the organisation.