Bafta star had child abuse pics
JURY TOOK JUST 30 MINUTES TO CONVICT Images were found on teen’s laptop
A Bafta-nominated actor was caught with a hoard of child abuse images when detectives raided his home.
NatNathan McHallam, 18, was arrested in front of his paparents after hundreds of depraved images were fofound on the family lalaptop.
MMcHallam – who was prpraised for his leading rorole in Crowman in 2016 – wasw found guilty by a jurjury at Perth Sheri f f CouCourt on Friday.
He hhas been placed on the Sex OffeOffenders Register and was rereleased on bail while the ccourt prepares pre
Gordon Currie
sentencing reports on him. The jury took just 30 minutes to find him guilty of possessing the images at the home he shares with his mum and dad in Bankfoot, Perthshire, in October and November 2018.
PC Tracy Marsden, 42, told the jury she and other members of a specialist team carried out an operation on McHallam’s home at 7am on November 5.
She said: “We had a warrant to search the premises for indecent images of children.
“There were three people present – the accused and his parents.
“We explained information had been received that there were devices with indecent images of children on them, which had been downloaded in that property.”
She said the images were found in folders which could only be accessed through McHallam’s password. He was arrested and taken for interview.
The actor told officers: “I don’t know how they got there.”
DC Daniel Neill, 49, of Police Scotland’s cyber- crime unit, told the court that any suggestion the actor’s laptop had been “hacked” was extremely unlikely.
The officer said that 274 images were found. Of those, 151 were at the most depraved Category A level.
The court heard most of the images were of girls aged between six and 12 years old. McHallam was granted bail but is restricted from using internet-enabled devices.