German court yesterday gave a 15-month suspended sentence to former lawmaker Joerg Tauss for possession of child pornography, rejecting his claims that the images were for his work for parliament.

Mr Tauss, 56, resigned in June 2009 from the Social Democrats, at that time Chancellor Angela Merkel's junior coalition partners, after his home and offices were raided by investigators three months before.

He then joined the Pirate Party, which campaigns for Internet file-sharing and the reform of laws regarding copyright and patents, before being stripped of his parliamentary immunity and losing his seat in parliament.

Prosecutors said he was found to have 228 pornographic pictures and videos featuring minors on his mobile phone.

A police search of his home turned up more banned material.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.