Former military lawyer David McBride has been sentenced to five years and eight months in jail for sharing classified military documents with journalists.

McBride pleaded guilty to three charges, including theft and sharing more than 200 documents classified as secret, with members of the press.

ACT Supreme Court Justice David Mossop rejected McBride’s case that he did not believe he was breaking the law, and found the offences were aggravated by his high-security rating, which gave him access to the material.

He said McBride seemed to have become obsessed with the correctness of his own opinions.

Justice Mossop did accept that McBride’s mental health, which included PTSD, may have had a minor contribution to the offending.

The material released by McBride was used in the ABC’s The Afghan Files story, which revealed allegations that Australian soldiers were involved in illegal killings.

During a sentencing hearing earlier this month, prosecutors said McBride had copied the material, loaded it into a backpack and taken it home, over a long period of time.

The court was told the documents were stored in plastic bins in his cupboard, before being handed to journalists in a plastic bag for them to copy.

McBride will serve a non-parole period of two years and three months.

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