A FORMER aide to Prime Minister David Cameron avoided jail yesterday after being convicted of downloading pictures of scantily clad girls as young as 10 in sexual poses.

Patrick Rock of Fulham, south-west London, who faced 20 charges of making indecent photographs of children, had claimed the images he downloaded on to his iPad over three days in August 2013 were not indecent.

But the jury in his trial at Southwark Crown Court in London rejected his claim and convicted him by majority verdict of five counts.