A former soldier faces jail in France after he tried to smuggle a four-year-old girl out of Calais's notorious 'Jungle' camp in what he says was a 'crime of compassion'.

Rob Lawrie, from Guiseley, West Yorkshire, attempted to bring Afghan youngster Bahar Ahmadi back to Britain in his van after delivering supplies to the migrant camp.

The 49-year-old was hoping to take the little girl to her relatives who are living in Leeds, but was stopped on the border and charged with aiding illegal immigration.

He now faces up to five years in jail when he comes before a French court, but says he is more concerned for Bahar, who has been returned to the 'Jungle'.

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Rob Lawrie, a former soldier who took clothes and supplies to Calais's 'Jungle' camp faces jail after he tried to bring a four-year-old Afghan girl, Bahar Ahmadi (right), back to the UK to relatives she has in Leeds

Mr Lawire says he is more concerned about the safety of the youngster than he is about his potential jail term

Mr Lawrie decided to take supplies to the camp in Calais after seeing pictures of Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, who died when his boat capsized off the coast of Turkey.

He met little Bahar while working in the Jungle and her father pleaded with him to take her back to Britain rather than allow her to remain in the squalid conditions of the roadside camp.

It is understood the girl's mother is still in Afghanistan, but she has some relatives settled in Yorkshire.

Father-of-four Mr Lawrie initially refused to take her but relented in a moment of what he calls 'paternal instinct' and put the little girl in a storage compartment of his van.

But his vehicle was stopped at the border after two Eritreans also sneaked on board and Mr Lawrie was charged and bailed to appear before a French court in January.

The former soldier in the Royal Corps of Transport has been told he could face a sentence of five years in prison or a £20,000 fine.

He met the little girl while delivering supplies to the camp and said he took her in a moment of 'paternal instinct'

He says he accepts what he did is 'both illegal and very, very stupid', but insists he could not leave Bahar in the camp.

He told ITV News: 'When you realise that you are 22 miles from this little girl having a warm house and a family that loves her, rational thought goes out of your head.'

Mr Lawrie and his MP, Greg Mulholland, are now calling on the government to do more to help those in the camp.

Friends in Yorkshire have set up a petition calling on Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to intervene and appeal for leniency from the French authorities.

The so-called 'New Jungle' camp, which is around an hour away on foot from the centre of the northern French city, has swollen in size over recent months as more and more migrants arrive, attempting to get to Britain.

A French court yesterday ordered the local government to install 10 more water stations at the overflowing migrant site, where some 6,000 people are now camped out in the cold.

Bahar was living in the Jungle camp in Calais and Mr Lawrie says he could not leave her in the bad conditions