Inverness man jailed for child porn stash

An Inverness man who was caught with the largest haul of downloaded child pornography found by northern police was jailed for 18 months today.

Officers armed with a search warrant recovered a total of 170, 234 still images and nearly 1000 videos from computer gear used by Iain McIntyre at his former home at Diriebught Road, in Inverness, on 3rd July last year.

Judge Lord Brailsford told McIntyre: "The offences were committed when you downloaded what has to be accepted was a very large number of indecent images of children."

But he added: "Despite the very large number of images it should immediately be said the majority were at the lowest possible level of seriousness.

"Only 67 were at the most serious level. These facts render this case as being in the unusual category."

The judge said: "In your favour there appears to have been no attempt to distribute these images."

Lord Brailsford also noted that when McIntyre became aware of the "inappropriate attraction to adolescent females" he had sought to draw that to the attention of police and went looking for help from a consultant psychiatrist.

The judge told the first offender that he would have faced a two year prison sentence, but for his guilty plea.

He also ordered that McIntyre should be kept under supervision for three years following the jail term.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the divorced father had no previous convictions or pending cases against him but was being monitored by police from the offender management unit in Inverness when the crimes were uncovered.

Advocate depute Alison Di Rollo said McIntyre (38) had been referred to the police by his psychiatrist after he revealed he had sexual fantasies about young girls.

The prosecutor said that police arrived at McIntyre’s former address in Diriebught Road, Inverness, on 3rd July last year armed with a search warrant after receiving information that he had been downloading indecent images of children.

Computer gear was seized and the former kitchen porter told officers: "You will find that there are indecent images on the hard drive, discs and DVDs. The images are of children."

He said: "They’re from studios which were busted some time age. You could describe it as soft porn, I suppose."

Ms Di Rollo said that the vast majority of the pictures found depicted erotic posing by children between five and 16, but 67 featuring a girl who appeared to be 14 to 16 tied to a bed were classified in the most serious category.

She said: "The grand total of 170,234 still images and 965 videos represents the largest collection of indecent images of children that Northern Constabulary has ever recovered."

McIntyre, of Innes Street, in Inverness, was later interviewed by police and said he downloaded and viewed them for sexual pleasure.

He said they were sourced from websites which had been studios in the Ukraine but were later closed down.

McIntyre told officers: "I don’t know what to say, got caught up doing things like a drug I suppose, sexual perversion."

He earlier admitted making indecent photos of children by downloading between May 2009 and April last year and possessing such materiel up to July 3 last year.

Defence counsel Susan Duff said McIntyre was glad when he was caught by the police.

Lord Brailsford placed him on the sex offenders’ register.