Teen who collected indecent images to be sentenced

A Nairn teenager will be sentenced next month after admitting downloading indecent images of children and other pornographic material.

Peter Brown, now aged 19, was 17 when he collected over 1,400 still images and six videos, some at the high end of the obscenity scale, between September and October, 2014, at his parents’ home at Mossside.

Inverness Sheriff Court heard yesterday that police got a tip-off and raided his house, taking possession of a broken iPad, a laptop and a mobile phone.

Fiscal Roderick Urquhart said Brown was reported to the Procurator Fiscal on November 3, and his trial was due to be held on December 1, 2015. The youth was due to appear for a pre- trial hearing on November 20, 2015 but failed to appear and a warrant was granted for his arrest.

Mr Urquhart said: “It transpired that after hehad failed to meet his father on November 6 for an appointment with his solicitor and after his parents had been unable to trace him, his parents had reported him as a missing person on November 13.

“Examination of CCTV showed that on November 6 at Waverley Station in Edinburgh, he had caught the 6.25am Kings Cross train.

“It was recognised that he was a particularly vulnerable young manand the initial search was very much a missing person inquiry, rather than simply one of an absconding accused.

“He did return to his family home in the spring of this year and, through his solicitor, arranged his surrender to the warrant,” Mr Urquhart added.

Subsequent investigation showed that the broken iPad contained 3 indecent images of children and 1 indecent video.

The images had been backed up onto the mobile phone although they were no longer easily accessible.

Onthe laptop, 1,441 indecent images of children and five indecent videos were recovered.

Another six videos and 15 images featuring bestiality were also found.

Brown will re-appear for sentence on September 29 and he was placed on the Sex Offenders Register.