diff --git a/core/model/fieldtypes/HTMLText.php b/core/model/fieldtypes/HTMLText.php
index 8642f677e..2d1901e14 100755
--- a/core/model/fieldtypes/HTMLText.php
+++ b/core/model/fieldtypes/HTMLText.php
@@ -77,9 +77,13 @@ class HTMLText extends Text {
 		 * that does very badly on broken HTML*/
 		if (!$str) {
 			/* See if we can pull a paragraph out*/
-			if (preg_match('{<p(\s[^<>]*)?>(.*[A-Za-z]+.*)</p>}', $this->value, $matches)) $str = $matches[2];
+
+			// Strip out any images in case there's one at the beginning. Not doing this will return a blank paragraph
+			$str = preg_replace('{^\s*(<.+?>)*<img[^>]*>}', '', $this->value);
+			if (preg_match('{<p(\s[^<>]*)?>(.*[A-Za-z]+.*)</p>}', $str, $matches)) $str = $matches[2];
+
 			/* If _that_ failed, just use the whole text */
-			else $str = $this->value;
+			if (!$str) $str = $this->value;
 			
 			/* Now pull out all the html-alike stuff */
 			$str = preg_replace('{</?[a-zA-Z]+[^<>]*>}', '', $str); /* Take out anything that is obviously a tag */
diff --git a/tests/fieldtypes/HTMLTextTest.php b/tests/fieldtypes/HTMLTextTest.php
index 7f57f446f..207e19660 100644
--- a/tests/fieldtypes/HTMLTextTest.php
+++ b/tests/fieldtypes/HTMLTextTest.php
@@ -27,7 +27,10 @@ class HTMLTextTest extends SapphireTest {
 			'<h1>Should not take header</h1><p>Should take paragraph</p>' => 'Should take paragraph',
 			'<p>Should strip <b>tags, but leave</b> text</p>' => 'Should strip tags, but leave text',
 			'<p>Unclosed tags <br>should not phase it</p>' => 'Unclosed tags should not phase it',
-			'<p>Second paragraph</p><p>should not cause errors or appear in output</p>' => 'Second paragraph'
+			'<p>Second paragraph</p><p>should not cause errors or appear in output</p>' => 'Second paragraph',
+			'<img src="hello" /><p>Second paragraph</p><p>should not cause errors or appear in output</p>' => 'Second paragraph',
+			'  <img src="hello" /><p>Second paragraph</p><p>should not cause errors or appear in output</p>' => 'Second paragraph',
+			'<p><img src="remove me">example <img src="include me">text words hello<img src="hello"></p>' => 'example text words hello',
 		);
 		
 		foreach($cases as $originalValue => $expectedValue) {