A former sex expert has been spared jail after he was found with dozens of throwing knives, throwing stars and a sword in his hotel room.

Alexander Hooper-Hodson, 44, was found with over 100 different weapons including a katana sword in the Travelodge hotel where he was living in November, 2022.

Hooper-Hodson, of Essex Street in Brighton, was handed a fine after previously pleading guilty to the weapons offences.

Brighton Magistrates heard that Hooper-Hodson, 44, was found in his hotel room with 25 flick knives, 38 throwing daggers, 51 throwing stars and a katana sword.

Charlotte Arundale, defending, said the former TV “sex expert with the tattoos” had been planning to set up a cosplay fancy dress business.

The court was shown photos of Hooper-Hodson dressed as Marvel superheroes Deadpool and Spiderman. In one photo dressed he was seen holding a katana against his crotch in a suggestive manner.

Hooper-Hodson was said to be half in costume when police came to speak to him about an unrelated incident at the Travelodge in Preston Road, Brighton, on November 22, 2022.

He was detained after police spotted “toy guns” in his room, where he was living at the time, and later found the other weapons.

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Miss Arundale described the offence as “out of character and largely out of naivety” for Hooper-Hodson.

She added that he was not aware that it was illegal to possess the weapon and that he was “very sorry”.

Hooper-Hodson previously pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing an offensive weapon in a private place and two counts of possessing a flick knife.

He started his career as an “agony uncle” on Sugar magazine when he was 25 and ran a column for The Daily Record in Scotland.

Hooper-Hodson was on Channel 5 and MTV’s educational reality show Sex Pod and has written several books including “52 Teen Girl Problems and How To Solve Them”.

He has six books published on Amazon which all are centred around advice for teenage boys and girls growing up.

He was fined £1,000, given a year long community order and told to pay £1,020 costs. All of the weapons will also be destroyed.