A TRANSSEXUAL who downloaded child porn has been spared jail after a judge said she could not be kept safe in prison.

Laura Voyce, 20, who has changed her name from Luke, could have been locked up for nine months after being convicted of 14 counts of downloading indecent images of children.

But Judge Lesley Newton chose to suspend the sentence after saying time in a prison would be an “appalling experience” for the sex offender.

Voyce, of Gaywood Green, Kirkby, is in the process of having a sex change to become a woman.

And the court heard a stash of child porn was found on Voyce's computer by police investigating another allegation.

Four of the 14 images uncovered were at level 4, the second worst category of child pornography, and depicted youngsters being abused.

Voyce claimed she looked at pictures of partly-naked youngsters in a bid to come to terms with her troubled childhood.

She told the trial jury at Manchester Crown Court that she had downloaded child porn by mistake while looking for music on a file sharing site, but was found guilty after an expert performed the same searches in court and found no illegal pictures.

Sentencing, Judge Newton told Voyce: “Frankly, you deserve to go to prison, but I can’t bring myself to send you to prison, entirely because I think prison would be an appalling experience for you.

“I do not see how you could be kept safe in a prison environment with the best will in the world on the part of those who run such establishments.”

The images were discovered when Voyce was living in Withington, Manchester, in 2008.

Neil Usher, prosecuting, said that when quizzed by detectives Voyce claimed she had looked at pictures of semi-naked children because they helped her come to terms with her ‘lost childhood’ and ‘struggles with her sexuality’.