Actor Chris Langham (58) has been jailed for ten months for downloading child porn.
When police raided the star's home in November 2005 as part of "Operation Ore" they seized three computers containing photographs and video clips of children.
Langham, who won a Bafta for his role in the BBC drama The Thick Of It, admitted looking at child porn but pleaded not guilty to the charges against him because, he said, he wanted to make a public declaration that he was not a paedophile
His defence was that he was conducting research for the BBC television series Help.
During his trial Langham told Maidstone Crown Court that he and a co-writer had created a paedophile character called Pedro whose catchphrase was "I'm only a minor offender", and that he wanted to explore the way society viewed sex offenders through him. The episodes were never made.
The actor said he also looked at indecent images of children because it helped him to come to terms with his own sexual abuse.
The jury convicted him of 15 counts of making an indecent photograph of a child between September and November 2005 after a three-week trial which finished last month.
Chris Langham said he also looked at indecent images of children because it helped him to come to terms with his own sexual abuse
Langham was also accused of having sex with an underage girl in upmarket hotels, his West End dressing room, his car and his home.
But the jury accepted his account that he only had sex with her when she was 18 and cleared him of six counts of indecent assault and two counts of buggery between January 1996 and April 2000.
Langham had denied all the charges.
He is expected to serve five months, less the 43 days he has already spent in custody.
Judge Philip Statman said one of the victims was aged around eight-years-old, while others were between 11- and 13-years-old: "Some of the children viewed are clearly prepubescent, others are fully developed, some of the children are clearly of Filipino extract.
"All have had inflicted upon them horrifying sexual abuse and, I want to make this absolutely clear to you, I must think first of those children. They are too young to consent.
"Your activity took place in the comfort of your own home, no doubt at the time feeling safe in the knowledge that you would never be caught."