Perverted former Sheriff of Canterbury Martin Fisher has had his sentence for child abuse pictures cut by appeal court judges.

The 64-year-old former Tankerton Tory was jailed after he gawped at illegal images of naked children - despite a ban designed to curtail "porn addiction".

But he was caught repeatedly by police with illegal images on his PC during unannounced visits to his home in 2013.

Fisher, of Queen's Road, Whitstable, was jailed for 28 months at Canterbury Crown Court in May after he admitted breaching a sexual offences prevention order and making indecent images of children as young as two.

"It must never be forgotten that the subjects of child pornography are real children, being subject to real degradations and that those who download this material from the internet can only add fuel to this behavior..." - Mr Justice Hickinbottom

But now Lord Justice Aikens, Mr Justice Hickinbottom and Mr Justice Lindblom, sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court, have ruled he was treated too harshly and reduced his sentence to 18 months.

The court heard Fisher, who is now retired and previously ran a home insurance underwriting business, was banned from using the internet for 10 years by the SOPO, unless he submitted to regular inspections of his browsing by the police and did not delete his web history.

But he was caught with illegal images of naked children on his computer during unexpected visits by police to his home and also broke the order by deleting his history on one occasion when he saw officers at his door.

Fisher initially claimed not to have a sexual interest in the naked pictures of children he was poring over, but rather professed an "aesthetic" and "artistic" fascination.

However, he later accepted that he had a problem and voluntarily underwent psychotherapy in a bid to beat what he dubbed a "porn addiction" before finally spending all his chances and being jailed again.

Lawyers for Fisher argued his punishment was too tough, due to his attempts to reform and given the small numbers of images he was found with and the relatively low level of obscenity.

The bulk of the images were from naturist sites showing naked children, but not youngsters engaging in sexual activity, the court heard.

Mr Justice Hickinbottom, allowing his appeal, said: "There were significant aggravating factors to this offending.

"It must never be forgotten that the subjects of child pornography are real children, being subject to real degradations and that those who download this material from the internet can only add fuel to this behavior.

"However the images involved in this case were mostly of children engaged in no sexual activity at all. The sentence imposed was manifestly too high.

"We quash the sentence imposed and replace it with a sentence of 18 months imprisonment."