The former partner of Shannon Matthews's mother was released from custody yesterday after being convicted of downloading child pornography to his personal computer.

Craig Meehan, 22, was driven from Dewsbury Magistrates' Court, in West Yorkshire, to a undisclosed location with a police escort.

He was sentenced to 20 weeks in prison - but, as he had already spent 166 days in jail on remand, was released.

Residents living close to the home he shared with Karen Matthews, 32, in Dewsbury Moor, warned he would not be welcome on the estate.

Earlier, Meehan was found guilty of 11 counts of possessing indecent images of children. The counts detailed 49 different images of child abuse, including some featuring children as young as four.

The supermarket fishmonger was cleared on one count of possessing an image on a mobile phone.

Meehan's computer was seized by police searching for nine-year-old Shannon earlier this year. Sentencing him, District Judge Jonathan Bennett told him the offences were "serious matters".

He said: "The damage that has been caused to the children in these photographs is unimaginable."

Police categorise child abuse pictures from category one to category five, where five is the most serious. The court heard Meehan was found guilty of possessing 30 images at level one, 10 at level two, two at level three and seven at level four.

Meehan was made subject to a seven-year sexual offences prevention order which bans him from having photographs of children under 16 unless it is with permission of the child's parents.

He is also prohibited from downloading or viewing any image of children, except for family photographs.

Meehan was convicted after a five-day trial last week.

The images were found by police who seized Meehan and Ms Matthews's computers the day after Shannon went missing in February.

The schoolgirl, now 10, was found 24 days after vanishing, following one of the biggest search operations ever in the UK.

Ms Matthews and Meehan's uncle Michael Donovan, 40, of Batley Carr, are to go on trial in November accused of offences related to Shannon's disappearance, including kidnap.