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Ex-Labour MP and former Army officer Eric Joyce has received a suspended sentence after he admitted making an indecent image of a child.
Joyce, 59, had a film on a device that "depicts a number of children" with one said to be 12 months old, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
The former shadow minister and ex-MP for Falkirk was arrested in 2018.
He was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and must complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
The court heard the 51-second category A film - the most serious there is - was accessed by Joyce, of Worlingworth, Suffolk, between August 2013 and November 2018.
It featured what appeared to be seven different children, aged between 12 months and seven years.
Sentencing Joyce, Judge Mr Justice Edis said the film showed the "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," he added.
"If there was no market, those children wouldn't be subjected to these very serious offences."
Joyce was the MP in Stirlingshire between 2000 and 2012 before leaving the party to serve as an independent.
While a Labour MP, he held the post of shadow Northern Ireland minister in 2010.
He stepped down before the 2015 general election.