Indecent images man had job with children’s charity

COURT: Trust had no concerns – but urges anyone who has to get in touch

A Fife man who had more than 10,000 indecent images of children on his home laptop worked for a children’s charity.

Adrian Snowball admitted possessing the massive haul of some of the worst kind of indecent images at his Anstruther home when he appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

The Courier has now learned Snowball was head of learning and development at Stirling-based charity Aberlour Child Care Trust until 2008.

The group has offices in Perth and Dundee, as well as bases in the central belt, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

A spokesperson for the charity said it was not aware of any concerns about Snowball’s conduct while he was employed there but encouraged anyone who might have issues to contact it and the police.

Snowball, 63, told police his attraction to young boys was a “guilty secret” after cyber-crime investigators unearthed more than 850 category A photographs and videos of abused children.

Category A is regarded as the most severe classification of abuse.

More recently, he fronted a campaign encouraging the 18% of Scotland’s population who don’t use the internet to “get online”, as one of the Scottish Government’s digital champions.

He was caught in possession of the images after using his personal email address to upload them on to a Microsoft cloud sharing website.

A spokesperson for Aberlour Child Care Trust said: “Adrian Snowball worked for Aberlour until 2008.

“We are not aware of any concerns or complaints about him, during his period of employment.

“Aberlour takes its duty to protect children and families seriously and all staff are subject to a rigorous vetting procedure.

“If anyone has any concerns, we would invite them to contact us directly on 0800 0856 150.

“As with any issue that is brought to our attention, we will investigate matters fully.

“We also encourage anyone with a concern to contact police.”

Snowball will return to Dundee Sheriff Court on November 28 to learn his fate after Sheriff Alastair Carmichael deferred sentence for criminal justice social work reports to be carried out.

He has been placed on the sex offenders register.

It has emerged that Adrian Snowball, who had more than 10,000 indecent images on his computer, worked with the charity Aberlour Child Care Trust until 2008.