Antony Collis, 59, was given eight years and six months for indecently assaulting five schoolgirls, and a further four months for possessing child pornography.

Collis, of Stonegate, near Wadhurst, East Sussex, was found guilty at the Old Bailey on Tuesday of eight counts of indecent assault of girls aged under 14.

He was told to leave the Belmont surgery in East Sussex following complaints in 2003, and was struck off as a doctor in 2007.

Those girls were assaulted over a 10-year period – from 1993 until 2003 – while Collis was performing examinations, which were often conducted in close proximity to parents.

In addition pornographic images of children had been viewed on Collis’s two computers, which had been seized by police after his arrest.

The former GP bowed his head as the jury returned the verdicts. Collis was cleared of four counts of indecent assault, and two further counts on the directions of  Judge Peter Rook