Pervert refused to enter court because of coronavirus

A man who had a stash of pornographic pictures of children would not enter Hamilton Sheriff Court because of the coronavirus crisis – and his defence agent met with him in a car park before lodging the guilty plea.

James Hurles got a rude awakening when police officers arrived at his Stonehouse home early in the morning and discovered a stash of child abuse images.

Officers had information indecent material had been downloaded to a device at the address. Jennifer Mclaren, prosecuting, told the court: “They attended at 7am and were met by the accused’s mother.

“The accused was found in his bedroom upstairs.

“A mobile phone was removed from his bed. Hurles admitted ownership of it and provided a password.

“During a cursory search of the device, indecent images of children were found.”

Hurles, 23, admitted downloading indecent images of children at his home in Ringwell Gardens between June 2018 and June last year.

Ms Mclaren said a full cybercrime analysis of the phone was carried out and 86 indecent images, including seven in the most depraved category, were discovered.

She said:“the images featured both male and female children, aged approximately one to 12 years.”

When the case called, defence agent Ian Scott said Hurles was in the vicinity of the court but was unwilling to enter the building given the coronavirus situation.

Sheriff Ray Small said he was happy to deal with the case in the absence of the accused and Mr Scott met his client in a car park to confirm his instructions before lodging the guilty plea.

After hearing details of the police raid, the sheriff said:“i’ll need a criminal justice social work report and a risk assessment before passing sentence.”

The case was continued until May 22 and Hurles, who has moved to Larkhall, was put on the sex offenders’register.