100,000 images of kids in sick haul

Disgusting collection built up over 21 years

A paedophile who had more than 100,000 child abuse photos and videos at his home in Dunblane has been warned that he faces jail.

Ronald Brunton (71) carefully catalogued his collection, giving boxes of CDs and individual discs hand-written labels so he could find his favourite images and creating a system of named folders on his computer and hard drives.

The 71-year-old pleaded guilty to possessing 101,082 child abuse images and 11,353 child abuse movies at his home in Balmoral Court between 1996 and February this year, when he was caught.

Nearly 15,000 of the still images and nearly 7000 of the videos were classified by experts as category A, the most serious kind.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that the 21-year-old collection was discovered when police found that an email address and a web IP address linked to Brunton were being used to download the pictures and films.

His house was raided and officers seized a tower computer, a laptop, a tablet, two external hard drives and three boxes of old CDs, all loaded with indecent images.

Prosecutor Samantha Brown said: “On the CDs, names were hand-written as to the contents of the discs.

“On the hard drives there were folders categorising types of images and videos.”

The laptop alone was found to contain nearly 35,000 indecent images of children, including more than 3300 which were category A.

Ms Brown added: “File-sharing software was found on the laptop which had been used to search for that type of material.”

Police also found evidence that other individuals had remotely accessed Mr Brunton’s computer.

Officers found that all the computer equipment belonged to Brunton and he lived alone.

Defence solicitor Ken Dalling said the court would require background information before sentencing Brunton.

Sheriff Craig Caldwell deferred sentence until January 25 for social background reports and an assessment of the risk of further offending.

In a clear reference to a prison sentence he warned Brunton: “This is a very serious catalogue of offending, involving very significant numbers of both movies and still images of the most severe and serious category.

“You should not be under any misapprehension that all possible disposals are under consideration.”

Brunton, wearing dark glasses and an anorak hood pulled down over his head in a bid to avoid a photographer, left court without commenting.