A man sent child porn to a woman he had never met after an online conversation.

But after Matthew Stevens sent the graphic images, the horrified woman called the police.

Yesterday the 30-year-old admitted possessing five indecent images of children and distributing three other photographs, but dodged an immediate jail sentence.

Hove Crown Court was told that when police examined his computer they found eight indecent images of children among a collection of adult porn.

Five of the pictures featuring children were described as being level four in a scale of one to five used by police to assess the seriousness of the child abuse depicted.

Level five is the most serious.

Dianne Chan, prosecuting, said Stevens of Worth Park Avenue, Pound Hill, Crawley, began an on-line relationship with the woman, who lives in Bedforshire, in 2007.

Their on-line conversations began to become sexual and he sent her some sexual photographs, including the images of children.

Robert Colover, defending, Stevens had visited legal adult porn sites but he had inadvertently downloaded the child images when he had clicked on blank boxes with a question mark.

The court was told Stevens, who has no previous convictions, was described as "vulnerable" and suffered from Tourette's syndrome and had a history of psychiatric problems.

Judge Anthony Niblett said psychiatric reports and a probation report concluded Stevens was not a risk to children.

The judge said he had read in the reports that Stevens was disgusted by the images.

He said: "You should be disgusted. Each image represents a child abused."

He said: "This would seem to an unfortunate blemish on his otherwise good character."

Stevens, who receives disability living allowance, was sentenced to six months jail suspended for two years. He will be supervised by the probation service for two years and must carry out 100 hours unpaid work in the community.

He was ordered to sign on the sex offenders register for seven years.