A former aide to Prime Minister David Cameron has been given a two-year conditional discharge after downloading indecent pictures of scantily-clad girls as young as 10 in sexual poses.

Patrick Rock, 65, had faced 20 charges of making an indecent photograph of a child, but argued the 20 images he downloaded on to his iPad over three days in August 2013 were not indecent.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court in London deliberated for more than eight hours on Tuesday and Wednesday before convicting him of five counts and acquitting him of three others.

Jurors were discharged after being unable to agree on the 12 other counts, which will lie on file.

Judge Alistair McCreath sentenced Rock to a two-year conditional discharge on each count, to run concurrently.