A man who emailed an indecent picture of a girl to a paedophile ring has been jailed for nine months.

Married businessman Dennis Johnson, 54, wept at the Old Bailey yesterday as he was led away to begin his sentence.

The court heard Johnson, of Binstead Close, Eastbourne, videoed a young girl while on a family holiday in France in 1995.

He edited the tape and emailed it to a group which peddles child porn in a bid to be accepted.

The court heard Johnson and his wife were naturists who had a liberal attitude towards sex and regularly used pornography in their sexual activities.

Johnson, a self-employed financial adviser, pleaded guilty last month to one charge of making indecent pictures of children and two charges of distributing indecent pictures of children under 16.

The court heard Johnson had emailed the tape to paedophile David Hatch, in Nantwich, Cheshire.

Henrietta Padget, prosecuting, said police raided the home of Hatch, who is serving a four-and-a-half year sentence, where they traced the video back to Johnson in Eastbourne.

Police searched Johnson's home on March 28, 1999, and his computer was seized.

Forensic tests revealed a still picture had been emailed from his computer to an internet group called All Amateur Teams which peddles pornography.

Detectives said Johnson would have faced a longer term had the offences not taken place before new legislation was introduced last year.

The maximum sentence for making and distributing indecent pictures of children has been upped from three years to ten.

Johnson was also ordered to be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.