Perv placed on sex offenders’ register

A former East Kil bri de man has been pl aced on t he s ex offenders’ register after child sex abuse images were found on his computer equipment.

Matthew Ferrie had downloaded the disgusting material over a period of nearly four years.

He appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Friday and was given a threeyear supervision order.

Sheriff Ray Small told Ferrie, 63, that he will be on the sex offenders’ register for the same period.

Ferrie admitted downloading i ndecent i mages of c hi l dren at hi s t hen home i n Rosemar y Crescent, East Kilbride, between April 2015 and February last year.

He also admitted being in possession of extreme pornography showing sexual activity between females and animals.

Chloe O’Hara t old t he court t hat Ferrie, who has no previous convictions, and his wife were at home when police officers arrived with a search warrant on February 11 last year.

A “systematic” search was carried out and various computer devices, that Ferrie admitted belonged to him, were seized.

Nearly 1800 indecent photographs were found.

These showed children thought to be aged nine months to 15 years-old.

Ms O’ Hara added :“They were predominantly young female children.”

There was evidence that Ferrie, now of Sanderling, Lesmahagow, had been searching online for “child sexual exploitation images”.

Police cybercrime officers also discovered three videos showing bestiality.

Addressing the number of images found, Ferrie’s lawyer said many of these were copies and many were found in a computer recycling bin.

Ferrie, he added, had been addressing his issues with the Stop It Now organisation ahead of the case coming to court.