Sex offender snared with vile images haul is ‘making progress’, court is told

A man who was caught with vile sexual images of women with animals - and thousands of child abuse images - has been told he’s made his final court appearance in connection with the case.

Brian McCallion was sentenced to a Community Payback Order (CPO) after being found to have over 5,000 illegal images stashed on his computer and mobile phone.

As part of the CPO, McCallion has regularly attended Community Payback Order Progress Review hearings at Paisley Sheriff Court.

But this week a judge told him he no longer needed to attend the court for the hearings, and would be allowed to continue with his punishment without appearing in the dock.

After being told McCallion had“fully complied”with the court order, Sheriff James Spy noted a CPO Progress Review Report, submitted by social workers, recommended that no further review hearings be assigned.

The judge said:“I shall follow that recommendation. I’ll allow the [Community Payback] Order to continue, with no further review.”

The court heard previously that police officers raided McCallion’s home, in Renfrew, in December 2018.

Procurator fiscal depute Keri Marshall said McCallion was found to have a total of 5,492 illegal images on his devices.

The prosecutor explained:“In November 2018, the Public Protection Unit of Police Scotland received information that, on May 2, 2018, category C indecent images of children were uploaded on to the KIK messaging app.”

The images had been uploaded from McCallion’s home and officers obtained a search warrant before going to search his property.

Miss Marshall explained that McCallion was not there when police arrived but they were given access to the property.

She added:“The accused arrived home a short time later.

“A Samsung mobile phone was seized from the living room, which the accused indicated belonged to him.

“A Compaq computer unit was seized from the bedroom, and the accused stated it belonged to him.”

The Compaq unit contained 5,470 indecent images, including both pictures and films, while the Samsung had a further 22 still images.

The images showed young girls being sexually abused by men.

McCallion, who previously worked as a bouncer, also had“extreme”images showing “females engaged in sexual activity with dogs”.

He admitted downloading indecent images of children over a 12-year period, between December 2006 and December 2018, possessing them over the same period, and hoarding bestiality images.

He was ordered to carry out 300 hours’ unpaid work in 15 months and be supervised by social workers for three years over the offences.

McCallion, whose address is now given as Cardross, Argyll and Bute, was also told to attend the Moving Forward, Making Changes programme and was placed on the Sex Offenders’Register for three