Man faces child abuse pic charges

Fit to stand trial hearing set

A 45-year-old man has been charged with having child abuse images at a top tourist attraction on the outskirts of Perth.

Kristopher Cruden is also said to have knowingly induced a teenage girl to abscond from a children’s home.

An alleged revenge porn incident involving the girl, said to be his ex-partner, figures among a seven-charge indictment he faces at Perth Sheriff Court.

A further court hearing has been scheduled for May 5 to allow a psychiatric examination to take place to determine if he’s fit to stand trial.

It is alleged that on a number of occasions between December 7, 2017, and February 7, 2018, he knowingly assisted or induced the teen, who was 17 at the time and can’t be named for legal reasons, to abscond from the home in Ayr.

On a number of occasions between the same dates, he is said to have been concerned in the supply of cannabis resin and amphetamine at the home.

It is then claimed that between September 10, 2017, and March 6, 2018, at Scone Palace - and at a house in Scone and various locations in Ayrshire - he had the indecent photographs of children in his possession.

He is further charged with taking, permitting to be taken, or making the indecent images between the same dates.

On March 2, 2018, at a house in Scone, he is alleged to have threatened to send an intimate photograph of his former girlfriend, which he took, to her new partner, with the intention of causing her “fear, alarm or distress.”

The final charge claims that on January 23, 2018, again at a house in Scone, he sent the teenager a sexually obscene message for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification or of humiliating, distressing or alarming her.

Cruden, of Park Avenue, Elderslie, Johnstone, had his bail continued meantime.