Oban paedophile told to expect jail
A MAN found with nearly 170,000 indecent images of children, including babies, at his home in Oban has been told to expect prison.
Lliam Martin, 34, of Dungallan Terrace, Oban, pleaded guilty to possessing indecent photographs of children, between November 14, 2008, and June 21, 2016.
Oban Sheriff Court heard on Tuesday that it took two police officers nine months to count and categorise the images, but almost 600,000 went unchecked because they ran out of time.
Procurator fiscal Eoin McGinty said intelligence suggested ‘an online address linked to the accused’s home address had connected to the internet, and it contained images of children’. During a search on June 21, Mr McGinty said the accused handed the police five SD storage cards. There was another SD card, which he handed separately to the police, saying: ‘There is stuff on there.’ When the police asked: ‘What stuff?’, he replied: ‘Porn of all ages.’ Police also recovered a laptop and another computer.
When interviewed by officers, Mr McGinty said, ‘he admitted handing items to the police, but stated he could not recall what he said’.
Mr McGinty said images of sexual activity were categorised in order of seriousness, with ‘A’ being the most serious. He explained the single SD card contained 10,990 still images and 12 moving images in category A; 13,845 still images and six moving images in category B; and, in category C, 123,217 still images and 22 moving images. Thousands more images were found on the computer, laptop and five SD cards.
They were ‘predominantly female, some male’, and, Mr McGinty added, ‘some of them are babies’. Those who source images sometimes attempt to hide them. These have been categorised and named. 168,880 still images and 40 moving images is the grand total. There had been 597,000 images that had not been looked at or categorised.’
These numbers, he said, ‘are certainly at the top end’.
Deferring sentence, Sheriff Ruth Anderson QC said: ‘I will require a report and I want the opportunity of viewing a small selection of images you have been viewing. You can anticipate a custodial sentence.’
Martin was also placed on the sex offenders’ register.