Man nabbed with vile photos of young girls

Home raided after probe by cops

23.09.2017 A vile pervert was caught with obscene images of youngsters during a police crackdown against child exploitation.

Twisted Ross McCullagh, 34, was snared during operation NOCAP ( National Action Plan to Tackle Child Sexual Exploitation), when the authorities discovered he had been downloading pictures onto his computer.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard McCullagh, formerly of Hillside Crescent in Neilston, had viewed content including a photo of a 14- year- old girl performing a sex act on a man and another image of a naked 12-year-old girl posed in a graphic way.

A forensic examination of his computer’s history revealed his search terms included numerous references to child sex involving 12 and 13-year-old girls.

Fiscal depute Fiona Holligan said: “During operation NOCAP, it was discovered images of children had been downloaded at the locus of Hillside Crescent. As a result of this information a warrant was granted for the address.”

Following the discovery of the downloads on November 22, police visited the address the following day at 7.45am where McCullagh was present.

Ms Holligan said: “Police said they were carrying out a search when the accused told officers: ‘I know exactly what this is about. You will want to take the computer.’ Officers carried out a systematic search and found a tower PC in the accused’s bedroom.”

The court heard a forensic examination of McCullagh’s machine recovered 12 images of children.

Four were category B, the second worst level of classification, and another seven were category C. The other image was not described. Cops discovered the images he had searched for had been downloaded between September 13 and 14, 2014, and they had emerged during the police operation.

Yesterday McCullagh, who has since moved away from Neilston, and is now living in Glasgow, pleaded guilty to charges of taking or allowing to be taken indecent photographs of an offensive nature of children.

Defence agent Tony Callahan said he was reserving his submission until the accused is sentenced.

Sheriff Colin Pettigrew adjourned proceedings against McCullagh until he has received a Criminal Justice Social Work report and a report from Pathways, an organisation which works with sexual offenders.

He also placed the accused on the Sex Offenders Register and ordered him back to court next month where he will learn of his fate.