UNIVERSITY student Stuart Painter has been jailed for six months for downloading and distributing pornographic pictures of young boys.

Painter, 22, of Beanacre Road, Melksham, who was cleared in February of helping hide evidence linked to the murders of Roy and Joan Clarke, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court today.

Painter admitted seven counts of downloading indecent pictures of children, one count of possession and two of distribution, but sentencing was adjourned until after the double murder trial had finished.

Painter, a psychology student at the University of Kent in Canterbury, shared naked pictures of young boys through an international gay porn ring.

He was also 'grooming' a 17-year-old Spanish boy over the internet and had sent him child pornography. Painter will serve half the six-month sentence, before being released on extended licence for two years and nine months. He will also have to undertake a sexual offenders rehabilitation programme.

Painter stood trial with his schoolfriend Michael Clarke in connection with the murders of Mr and Mrs Clarke at their home in Berryfield Park, in December 2004.

Clarke was jailed for 28-years after being found guilty of both murders, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on whether Painter had hidden clothes and a knife used in the killings.

The prosecution decided not to seek a retrial.