A French court has convicted a British ex-soldier of endangerment for trying to sneak a 4-year-old Afghan girl into Britain, but dropped a tougher smuggling charge and handed him a suspended fine.

The conviction Thursday appeared to be a symbolic punishment and a victory for Rob Lawrie, who apologized for what he called an "irrational" move.

He wasn't sentenced to prison, but was given a suspended €1,000 ($1,090) fine. That means he doesn't have to pay the money, but it goes on his criminal record in France.

Lawrie, who has been volunteering with migrants in Calais, was caught in October trying to take the girl to relatives in Britain, at her father's request.

Just before the trial, Rob Lawrie appeared with the girl in his arms at a news conference in northern France, pleading for understanding of what he acknowledged was "an irrational choice."

Lawrie's case epitomizes the clash between the heart and the law amid Europe's record-breaking migrant influx. The 49-year-old faced charges of aiding and abetting illegal immigration. 

"What you're looking at here is a waste of life. She's living in a refugee camp," Lawrie told reporters as young Bahar Ahmadi smiled timidly for the cameras. "People call it smuggling ... I was rescuing the little girl."

He agreed, however, that his decision was misguided.

"I'm sorry. I regret it and I wouldn't do it again," he said.

Lawrie, a former carpet-cleaner and soldier from the Leeds area, had been helping migrants as a volunteer when he was caught Oct. 24 by French border police with Bahar Ahmadi tucked away with her teddy bear in a cache in his van.

Two Eritrean migrants had also slipped into the back of Lawrie's vehicle, but Lawrie said he knew nothing about them and police believed him. They were not part of the case.

Ahmadi had been living with her father in the Calais camp, which is mired in mud and now home to at least 4,200 migrants trying to sneak into Britain. It is the biggest of several migrant camps that have sprung up in northern France.

Lawrie testified through a translator at the trial in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Presiding Judge Louis Betermiez pressed Lawrie on whether he was hiding the child, then asked whether he was compromising her safety.

Prosecutor Jean-Pierre Valensi said Lawrie told police about the child in his vehicle 2 1/2 hours after being stopped at the Calais port over the two Eritreans. "He was conscious of the disgraceful conditions," he said to loud boos in the courtroom. "I estimate her life was in danger" in the small closed cache, the prosecutor said.

Bahar and her dad, Reza Ahmadi, were in the courtroom, too.

Lawrie stresses he took no money to transport Bahar across the English Channel.

"I had told her father 'no' many times," Lawrie said in an interview last week with The Associated Press at his house in Guiseley, 210 miles (335 kilometers) north of London. "But half past 10 one rainy night, when she fell asleep on my knee as I was leaving for the ferry, I just couldn't leave her there anymore. All rational thought left my head."

 

"They continue to intimidate volunteers," said Rafael Flichman of Cimade, an association that aids migrants.