Charity hails jail sentence for OAP pervert

Children’s charity NSCPCC Scotland has welcomed the jailing of depraved Johnstone pensioner James Barr.

The 72-year-old was caged for 27 months after amassing nearly half a million sickening images of children as young as six months being tortured by paedophiles.

A spokesman for NSPCC Scotland says the children abused have had their lives ruined.

He said: “This is a particularly shocking case where Barr blatantly broke his bail conditions to download even more vile images of children suffering the most horrific abuse.

“Behind every sickening image accumulated by Barr are real children whose lives will be ruined.

“His actions have only fuelled the demand for this sickening material to be produced and it is vital he receives effective treatment behind bars to help prevent his continued offending.

“The production and d i s t ribution of child abuse images is a global criminal industry and the war against it is only just beginning.”

The pensioner was previously nabbed by cops after filling a laptop and 92 USB sticks with the sickening footage.

After being released on bail, the beast crammed another 24,885 images onto hard drives in just six months, taking the total number of abuse files to just under 490,000.

The court had earlier heard that Barr was initially busted by police at his home in Thorn Brae, Johnstone, last August.

He appeared in court charged over the find and was released on bail, with special conditions designed to prevent him from accessing more illegal images online.

But when officers arrived at his home in January this year to carry out a bail check they found another laptop and two further USB devices.

He held his hands up over his sordid and sickening obsession when he appeared in the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court last month, pleading guilty to downloading abuse images at his home on various occasions between January 1, 2012, and January 31 this year.

Procurator Fiscal Depute Keri Marshall told the court that Barr had images and films that were categorised as being the most serious there is.