A LONER who took part in “cybersex” with a schoolgirl has walked free from court for the second time, despite the intervention of the Solicitor General.

A panel of senior judges agreed not to jail David Stuart Barnes, who had also downloaded some of the most explicit child porn available.

Barnes, of Lawrence Street, Darlington, received a four month suspended sentence at Teesside Crown Court in April, after he admitted downloading child porn and inciting a 13-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity over the internet.

However, the decision was attacked as “unduly lenient”

by the Solicitor General, Edward Garnier QC, who instructed lawyers to ask the appeal court to increase the sentence.

Lord Justice Hughes, sitting with Mr Justice Supperstone and Mr Justice Maddison, said the once highly respectable 25- year-old was prosecuted for amassing hundreds of child porn images on his computer.

Seventeen of them were at level five, depicting the most explicit and degrading material, and one image showed the rape of a handcuffed five-yearold girl.

Barnes’ most serious offence involved his contact with the 13-year-old girl who he met on an internet chatroom.

They chatted on five occasions in the early part of 2009.

Their encounters escalated to the point where the girl used a webcam to show herself performing an obscene sex act, although Lord Justice Hughes said she had initiated the activity.

At Teesside Crown Court, Barnes’ sentence was suspended for two years and he was also ordered to take part in a sex offenders’ treatment programme and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.

Although Lord Justice Hughes agreed the sentence was too light, the appeal court judges declined to send Barnes to jail.

The length of his suspended sentence was increased from four to 12 months and the judge emphasised that cybersex crimes of this kind would “ordinarily call for a custodial sentence”.

However, he said the terms of the sex offenders’ treatment programme were demanding and in no sense a “soft touch”, and commented that Barnes had shown deep remorse.

The court also imposed an order requiring Barnes to surrender his computer for examination by police if required.