Guilty of indecent images

A pervert who had indecent images – one of a child as young as two – stashed on his mobile phone appeared in the dock on Friday.

David Gunn, of Maple Terrace, Greenhills, pled guilty to a charge of taking or making indecent photos of children between May 1 and December 14, 2015.

The 28-year-old also admitted possession of extreme pornographic images involving sexual activity between people and animals.

Fiscal depute Michael McIntosh told Hamilton Sheriff Court a specialist unit within Police Scotland received intelligence that there were indecent images of children on a mobile device within the Greenhills address.

Further enquiries then led to Gunn and police were granted a warrant to search the property which he shared with his partner and other family members.

A search was carried out and a mobile phone, which Gunn confirmed was his, was found.

Examinations confirmed there was a still indecent image of a child on the phone and a moving image of extreme pornography involving bestiality between a person and a dog.

Both images were Category A – the most extreme.The court heard the vile still image was of a two-year old involved in a sex act with an adult male.

The fiscal went on to say thumbnails for other images were found on the mobile phone, which could then be accessed on any other mobile device which had access to the internet.

But between the phone being seized and a full forensic examination being carried out, these thumbnails were moved to a dropbox and deleted.

Mr McIntosh added that the still image could only be seen through a forensic examination of the handset.

During an interview with police, Gunn told officers he“wasn’t interested sexually in kids”and that he never intentionally downloaded indecent images.

Instead, he insisted he had liked and joined a Messenger group and was sent five indecent images of children which he deleted before looking at them.

Gunn also denied looking for images involving bestiality but had viewed the image sent to him“more out of curiosity” than anything else.

His defence lawyer added in court that Gunn’s position remained that the images in question were on his phone for no longer than 36 hours.

Sentence was deferred on Gunn for reports until March 10. He was granted bail and placed on the sex offender’s register. Shouts of“beast”were heard from the public gallery.