Sex offender who hid images on mother’s laptop is jailed

A REPEAT sex offender who downloaded a stash of child abuse images on his mother’s laptop has been handed a six-year jail sentence.

James Stewart had dodged prison on an identical charge just months before creating a new horde of indecent images.

Police working on a tip-off raided his flat in Dundee and his mother’s home in Arbroath.

They found images stored on a hard drive and an iPad – as well as a computer belonging to Stewart’s mother.

He has now been handed an extended jail term after a sheriff told him he had “completely subverted” a community order he was placed on in early 2015.

Stewart, 42, of Strathairlie Avenue, Arbroath, pleaded guilty on indictment to downloading indecent images of children in October and November 2015.

Sheriff George Way revoked the community order imposed on Stewart for his original offence and jailed him for three years on that charge. He further imposed a six-year extended sentence on Stewart, with three years to be served in prison and three on licence – over the new offences.