AN AIR ambulance paramedic caught with child porn on his computer then stole morphine from his base at Benson for a suicide attempt.

Raymond Taylor, 36, was arrested by police at his home in January when they uncovered 450 pictures and videos of children being abused.

A fortnight later Taylor drove to the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance base at RAF Benson and stole morphine, before trying to take his life in a hotel.

Today, Taylor appeared before Reading magistrates and admitted six charges of making indecent images of children, one of stealing morphine from his workplace and another of possession of the horse tranquilliser ketamine.

Andrew Isaacs, prosecuting, said: “On February 8, the defendant caught a train to Birmingham and hired a hotel room.

“He wrote a suicide note admitting the images found on the computer equipment belonged to him and then attempted an overdose by way of the drugs he had stolen in order to take his life.

“This was not successful.”

He then made another attempt to kill himself but as he slipped in and out of consciousness, his cries alerted hotel staff. He was saved by paramedics.

Taylor, who had earlier answered “no comment” to all interviews following the raid on his home in Reading, then alerted police and was arrested after he was released from hospital following the suicide attempt.

Sarah Neighbour, defending, urged magistrates to release Taylor on bail because she claimed he no longer presented a suicide risk.

She said he had been discharged from the hospital wing at Bullingdon Prison and was now being held in the main part of the prison.

She added: “He was on constant suicide watch on the hospital wing but that is no longer required.

“That should be taken as evidence that the risk has been reduced.”

Miss Neighbour said Taylor was suffering with undiagnosed depression when he downloaded the child porn.

She said many of the images were duplicates and the real figure was much lower. However, she conceded some of the images were graded by police as being in the most serious level.

Miss Neighbour added that Taylor had the full support of his male partner, a nurse at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, and other friends who watched the proceedings from the public gallery.

Magistrates remanded Taylor, of Beecham Road, Reading, in custody to be sentenced at Reading Crown Court at a later date.

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