Doctor Degenerate: Academic jailed for 60k abuse images
A SCoTTiSH academic has been jailed after being caught with a library of 60,000 indecent images of girls aged as young as ten.
Dr Joseph Crawford was previously a respected member of the school of geography and sustainable development at the University of St Andrews.
He switched to Sheffield University before he was caught but continued to travel back to Scotland. He amassed the collection over seven years and kept it on a laptop and four USB sticks, which were seized when police raided his home in Falkirk, Stirlingshire.
He was traced through an investigation into an online network of paedophiles sharing the abusive images.
Crawford, 49, was alone and told police his wife was working away when officers staged the raid in 2018. Falkirk Sheriff Court heard he handed over the devices, and when asked if he had been looking at abusive images he replied: ‘i’d rather not say anything until i speak to my lawyer.’
Prosecutor Michael Maguire said the 60,000 images were classified as category C on a scale of seriousness.
He said: ‘They depicted girls between eight and 15, some unclothed or partially unclothed, posing erotically.’
Two category B videos were also found, showing girls between ten and 15 engaging in sexual activity alone, or with other children.
The browser history of Crawford’s laptop showed he had searched for and visited websites with titles that indicated they might contain indecent images of children.
Crawford pleaded guilty to possessing and downloading indecent images of children at his home between November 2010 and April 30, 2018.
Solicitor-advocate Neil Hay, defending, said Crawford was ‘remorseful’. He added: ‘He indicates his regret and shame. There is no suggestion of distribution.’
Jailing Crawford for ten months, Sheriff Christopher Shead said: ‘Having regard to
‘No suggestion of distribution’
the nature of the offences, the number of images and the time period involved, the threshold into custody has been crossed.’
The sheriff said he took into account the impact on Crawford’s employment when deciding on sentence.
Detective inspector Richard Banks, of Police Scotland’s National Child Abuse investigation Unit, said: ‘Crawford’s online behaviour was deplorable, with no thought of the young victims depicted in the images and videos.’
When Crawford left the University of St Andrews in 2017, the head of geography and sustainable development Professor William Bill Austin said he had ‘made a wonderful contribution to our research’.