Government ‘digital champion’ jailed over child sex abuse images
A MAN who featured in a Scottish Government campaign aimed at getting more people online has been jailed after being caught with thousands of child abuse images.
Community leader Adrian Snowball at first claimed he had nothing to do with the hoard because he was straight and had a ‘low sex drive’.
But he later admitted downloading more than 10,000 still images and videos, which were found on his laptop and hard drives after a police raid of his home.
When confronted with forensic evidence he broke down, saying: ‘It’s time to come clean.’ The 63-year-old called the haul his ‘guilty secret’.
In 2012, Snowball, a retired human resources consultant, volunteered as a ‘digital champion’, for a charity in Fife which helps people to use the internet. As a result, Government agency Digital Scotland featured him as a case study.
Fiscal depute Vicki Bell told Dundee Sheriff Court how police went to his home in February this year after a tip off.
‘A search commenced and items were seized,’ she said. After indecent images featuring boys were discovered, Snowball denied they had anything to do with him and claimed he was ‘a heterosexual male who had a low sex-drive since an illness in 2010’. But the fiscal depute said Snowball later admitted he had ‘viewed images up to around 2015 and said he knew it was wrong and had taken steps to delete them’.
‘He had come across a website and would download indecent images of boys. He said he had been sexually attracted to boys and called it his “guilty secret”.’
The court heard that 623 still images and 235 videos were classed as category A – the highest level of depravity.
Snowball, of Arncroach, Fife, pleaded guilty on indictment to possessing indecent images of children.
Defence solicitor Anne Duffy told the court her client suffered a brain abscess in 2010 which had left him with sight impairment, speech difficulties and memory problems.
She added: ‘He has been assessed as being very vulnerable in a custodial setting.’
But Sheriff Alastair Carmichael jailed Snowball for six months, saying: ‘The number of images and videos at category A means a custodial sentence is appropriate.’