Man with indecent images spared jail
A BEITH man has been spared jail after being found with hundreds of indecent images of children in a Largs flat.
Lennon Ferguson, 24, admitted being in possession of the indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children at a flat in Nelson Street and elsewhere between November 2, 2020 and June 30, 2022.
He also admitted a further charge of being in possession of extreme pornographic images at the same locations between April 18, 2021 and May 11, 2022.
The images were discovered when police attended the address in Largs on June 30 last year.
Details of the search were revealed when Lennon appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last year.
The procurator fiscal depute told the court that the search uncovered a mobile phone belonging to Ferguson, now of Park Avenue in Beith.
The indecent images were discovered during an initial search of the phone, though Ferguson initially denied any involvement when interviewed by police.
A full forensic examination found 66 still images within the cache storage of the phone, eight of which were still accessible at the time of analysis.
A further 36 moving images were also discovered on the phone. The still and moving images depicted boys and girls aged between three and 15.
Another three “extreme pornographic images” were also found on the device.
The fiscal depute said Ferguson
had obtained the images through the applications Telegram and Omegle.
During sentencing at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Friday, April 12, Ferguson’s lawyer told the court that social workers were willing to work with his client as an alternative to custody.
Sheriff Murdoch Mactaggart agreed, and handed Ferguson a community payback order which included 100 hours of unpaid work.
He will also be required to participate in the Moving Forward Making Changes Programme, and will be added to the sex offenders register for three years.
He will also need to comply with conditions including not possessing more than one of each electronic device such as a phone and computer, and giving serial numbers and passwords to his supervising officer.
Conditions also include not downloading any third party app without authorisation, not deleting his search history, and allowing his devices to be monitored.