OAP had indecent images of children

Man downloaded pics‘out of fascination’

An OAP caught with indecent images of children has been spared prison.

Leonard Grimes, from Fallin, was found with 61 indecent images and 25 movies, with the material featuring girls as young as a few months old.

The 66-year-old appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court last Wednesday (June 28) for sentencing.

He previously issued a guilty plea to possessing indecent photographs of pseudophotographs of children at an address in Fallin between July 29 2007 and December 7 2016.

Fiscal depute Laura Knox said police had received intelligence that an IP address linked to the property had been used to download images.

A warrant was granted and police attended at the property at 9.45am on December 7, confiscating a series of devices and disks from the house.

Mrs Knox said: “He stated that he first downloaded the images due to fascination...He stated that he would never behave inappropriately towards a child, but he had never thought about how the children featured felt.”

Defending, Stephen Maguire said his client – a former bus driver – had changed his ways in terms of his internet use and was extremely remorseful.

“He has placed nearly everything at risk here My Lord – his liberty, his family, his friends,” he said.

Sheriff Wyllie Robertson said custody had to be considered due to the serious nature of the charge, even though the number of images was relatively low.

He sentenced Grimes to three years of supervision and 250 hours of unpaid work, to be completed within six months. A community payback order with a series of conditions, including only allowing Grimes to access the internet on monitored devices and to have no contact with children under the age of 17.

“This is not something which is an easy option, or something that will rule out custody, if at any stage you breach that order,” said the Sheriff.