A school governor who built a small library of child sex videos has received a two-year community rehabilitation order.
George Vincent, 32, from Leyton, east London, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of a child between 1 May and 21 November last year, and three of distributing them.
But he was spared jail on Friday after the judge at London's Southwark Crown Court decided he was not a pervert.
The court was told that the father-of-one spent hours on the internet in his University of London office using the pseudonym "Heebee Jeebee".
Vincent, who had held a Labour seat on Newham Council, downloaded films depicting children as young as eight being bound, abused and forced to simulate sex.
Judge Christopher Hardy said the child sex scenes Vincent had downloaded were "very unpleasant", but not the "worst kind" to come before the court.
He said: "It is quite clear to me that the possession of this material is a result, as you put it, of depression and boredom in your life rather than perversion."
The judge said there were a number of factors why he had not given Vincent a custodial sentence including that he had lost the only job he had ever held as a financial risk manger and was extremely unlikely to get a similar one.