A former Labour Party MP has been sentenced to prison for the possession and distribution of child pornography, the BBC reports. 

The former MP is 66-year-old Paul Clark. He was the Labour Party MP for Gillingham in Kent, England, for a 13-year period from 1997 to 2010.

Prior to that, Clark was a junior minister when Tony Blair was the prime minister of the United Kingdom. And, in addition to this, Clark was the private secretary for the likes of education secretary Ed Balls and former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

Now, however, Clark is heading to prison.

"As young as three"

The National Crime Agency arrested Clark in May 2021.

At some point, Clark told the officers, "I know why you are here. I kept telling myself to stop."

After Clark's arrest, his devices were analyzed. Authorities, in their search, found over 1,400 items of child pornography, spanning a period from April 2013 to May 2021. According to LBC, this includes "298 category A videos and stills, 415 from category B, and 733 from category C, a total of 1,446 images."

Some of the images found were of children as young as three years old. And, other discovered evidence showed that Clark would discuss his sexual desires with others on the internet and would share the child pornography images that he had in his possession.

Clark, according to the BBC, was thus charged with "three counts of making indecent images of children and six counts of distributing indecent images of children."

Sentenced to 28 months

Clark pled guilty to the offenses. And, last week, his punishment was determined.

Clark has now been sentenced, by the Maidstone Crown Court, to a prison term of 28 months. That is two years and four months. This sentence will be carried out at the Maidstone Crown Court prison, located in Maidstone, Kent.

In addition to the prison sentence, Clark's name has now also been put on the Sex Offenders' List, where it will remain for a period of 10 years. And, Clark, during this same 10-year period, will have to participate in a sexual harm prevention program.

Clark's attorney, Ronnie Manek KC, claims that Clark is "a man full of remorse and regret."

But, Danielle Pownall of the National Crime Agency put things into perspective, saying:

Behind a significant number of images in Clark's possession was a vulnerable child being abused, just to satisfy paedophiles. He helped fuel the sickening trade in this material by downloading the images and sending them on to other offenders. In doing so, he also re-victimised every child.