A FORMER Hampshire judge was today spared jail after admitting downloading child porn from the Internet.

Instead David Selwood was given a year-long community rehabilitation order. He was also told he would remain on the sex offenders register for five years.

The 70-year-old arrived at Bow Street Magistrates' Court with his wife Barbara this morning to learn his fate.

The court was told how Selwood had suffered enormous stress in the past weeks.

Defending solicitor Richard Hallam told the court that the photographs fell within the least serious level.

"I think everyone agrees the photographs are level one images and at the lowest end of level one. There is no question of distribution or disclosure to anyone else in this case. He is a 70-year-old man, a family man who lives with his wife. He has four children and six grandchildren.''

In handing down the sentence, district judge Timothy Workman said: "The defendant is a man who until now has an exemplary record and who has throughout his career, in both the army and the law, provided long and distinguished public service. He is entitled to credit for pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity and for his co-operation throughout the police investigation.

"The commission of these offences and convictions now recorded are undoubtedly a personal tragedy for him and his family. Nevertheless, the court looks gravely upon this type of offence because it involves the exploitation and abuse of children, and the courts first concern must be to them."

The investigation into Selwood began after police received intelligence from the United States that linked the former judge to a number of child porn websites through his credit card details.

Officers swooped on Selwood's £500,000 luxury home in Winchester on April 21 where they recovered a laptop computer that was found to contain pornographic images of young boys.

Selwood was eventually charged two months later on 12 counts of making indecent photos of children and a further charge of possessing indecent images.

The court heard that Selwood had issued a prepared statement to police, in which he maintained he had never had any sexual interest in young children.

He said the reason for him visiting the sites was to satisfy his curiosity or to see how easy or difficult it was for someone with limited computer skills to find such images on the Internet.