Patrick Rock: PM's ex-aide given two-year conditional discharge for downloading indecent images of children

Patrick Rock faced 20 charges of making an indecent photograph of a child. Credit: PA

A former aide to Prime Minister David Cameron has walked free from court after being convicted of downloading pictures of girls as young as 10 in sexual poses.

Patrick Rock, from Fulham, south-west London, was given a two-year conditional discharge at Southwark Crown Court.

The 65-year-old had claimed the 20 images he downloaded on to his iPad over three days in August 2013 were not indecent.

But the jury in his trial convicted Rock by a majority verdict of five counts.

The court heard that the youngest of the girls in the pictures was aged just 10 years and four months when he downloaded the image - meaning she would have been younger when it was taken.

Rock was acquitted of three similar charges, while jurors were unable to agree on the 12 remaining counts and were discharged, meaning the charges will lie on file.

Rock had worked alongside David Cameron for 20 years Credit: PA

Delivering his sentence, Judge Alistair McCreath said: "I have not lost sight of the obvious reality that right-thinking people will quite properly consider that those who did what you did should be punished for it."

"You should be. And you have been", he added.

Rock must register as a sex offender for the duration of the two year conditional discharge.

He has also been banned from using a device with the internet unless it can retain his browsing history and he surrenders it for inspection by police on request over the same period.