The former Labour MP Eric Joyce has been handed a suspended sentence after admitting to making an indecent image of a child. The 59-year-old ex-army major, who served as MP for Falkirk for more than a decade, was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years, and also ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work. The former shadow minister had a 51-second film on a device depicting “penetrative sexual abuse of very young children”. Joyce, of Worlingworth, Suffolk, who was on bail after being arrested in 2018, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing at Ipswich crown court to the offence, which took place between August 2013 and November 2018. Joyce was ordered to sign the sex offender register after his admission. Sentencing on Friday, Mr Justice Edis said: “You have pleaded guilty to an offence which involves the possession of a category A film of a little less than a minute’s duration. “That film showed the penetrative sexual abuse of very young children. That these acts of abuse happened is because there are people like you who want to watch these films. If there was no market, those children wouldn’t be subjected to these very serious offences.” The judge added: “You have sought help from people well able to provide it and there’s evidence before the court that that has had an effect on helping you reduce, perhaps completely, your impulsive behaviour, and that’s happened over a significant period due to the delay in these proceedings.” Edis also sentenced Joyce to a sexual harm prevention order, lasting until further order of the court. The ex-MP was also given an 18-day rehabilitation activity requirement and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £1,800. At an earlier court hearing in July, Judge Emma Peters warned Joyce that the offence crossed the custody threshold. She said the film, found on a device, “depicts a number of children”. “Some are quite young, one is said to be 12 months old,” she said. “Clearly a category-A movie.” She explained that Joyce, who appeared at court in person, “says he accesses it via an email which he says was a spam email”. The judge added: “At the time he was drinking heavily and he has now undergone work with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and a psychotherapist.” Joyce served as shadow minister for Northern Ireland from June until November 2010 before resigning from the post after being banned from driving for a year when he admitted failing to provide a breath test. Joyce left Labour to serve as independent MP in 2012, before stepping down before the 2015 general election. He spent 21 years in the army, rising to the rank of major. After the sentencing, an NSPCC spokesman said: “By accessing this appalling material, Joyce was helping to fuel a foul industry that thrives on inflicting pain and suffering on children. This problem cannot be solved by law enforcement alone – it is imperative that tech companies commit extra resources to prevent this material being shared, and to ensure it is removed as soon it appears online.” It comes after the former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke was last month found guilty of sexually assaulting two women. The father of two, who represented the Kent constituency of Dover from 2010 until last year, had denied the three charges, two in relation to a parliamentary worker in 2016 and one in relation to a woman at his family’s central London home in 2007. He is due to be sentenced in September. Separately, a Tory MP is under investigation by the police after being accused of rape by a former parliamentary aide.