Former Falkirk MP Eric Joyce has dodged jail for making an indecent image of a child.
The 59-year-old had on a device a 51-second film depicting a number of children, one of which was said to be 12 months old.
Joyce, of Worlingworth, Suffolk, previously pled guilty to the offence, which took place between August 2013 and November 2018.
The defendant, who is on bail, was required to sign the sex offenders register after his admission.
Judge Emma Peters had warned the former shadow minister at an earlier hearing that the offence crossed the custody threshold.
At Ipswich Crown Court today he was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years. He was also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work
Joyce, who is originally from Perth, was first elected as MP for Falkirk at a by-election in 2000.
He retained the seat at three subsequent elections but quit the party in 2012 following a drunken altercation in a House of Commons bar.
The MP stood down from Westminster at the 2015 election, where his seat was subsequently won by the SNP.
He spent 21 years in the Army, rising to the rank of major.
