Alister Cooling, 27, was found with movies of girls as young as five involved in sexual acts with adults when police raided his Addington Road home in June. At the time Cooling was employed as a writer on the 'Conservative Home' website and campaigned for (then) London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Judge Stephen Waller said during court proceedings "Those who download this sort of material give encouragement to people, whether in this country or somewhere else in the world, who are filming the abuse and suffering of children." he added "The description of the strongest of these images is horrifying and any right thinking person, however liberal they might be in relation to adult pornography, couldn’t but be repulsed in seeing images like these."

Among the 43 movies found on Cooling's laptop computers were films of children involved in sadism, while two files featured men and women engaged in sexual activity with horses.

Cooling was charged with eight counts of making indecent images, two of possessing extreme pornography and one count of possessing 35 indecent photos of a child.

Judge Stephen Waller, sentencing, handed Cooling six months in jail after telling him he did not believe he downloaded the films for 'research purposes'.

Cooling was ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years and disqualified from working with children.