A man who downloaded indecent images of children just one week after being placed on the Sex Offenders Register has been spared jail.
Repeat offender Paul Dodds was ordered he must make any digital device capable of accessing the internet available for inspection when he was placed on the register in February 2020.
But when police checked his search history and storage just one week later they found he had once again been accessing explicit images.
Devices inspected by police
The 37-year-old’s tablet’s history threw up searches for pregnancy porn and rape porn, while images of his phone showed 26 indecent pictures of a partially-unclothed teenage girl, thought to be aged between 13 and 16.
He admitted having the indecent images and videos at Banff Sheriff Court last month when fiscal depute Ellen Barr explained that those images were found to have been downloaded on March 2, 2020.
She said police found further three indecent images of teenagers, aged 12 t0 16, on his tablet’s SD card and four video files of adults having sex with dogs.
At a sentencing diet defence agent Debbie Wilson said her client was taking part in the Moving Forward Making Changes rehabilitation scheme and had now made many positive changes in his life.
Sheriff Robert McDonald told Dodds he was in a “perilous situation”.
“You will appreciate that appearing before me with this offence with your record, I had to seriously think about whether a custodial sentence was the right thing to do here,” the sheriff said.
“Accessing these sorts of images is really part of a process of child abuse. Every photo you look at contributes to that abuse and the psychological damage done to the child concerned.”
Avoids a jail sentence
He said that had the images been any worse it would have been a more serious solemn court case.
“The aggravating factor to this is it’s not the first time you have appeared for this sort of offence,” he added.
“But by way of mitigation, you do seem to be complying with the supervision requirement. There has been no further offending of this type.”
Dodds, of Gardenstown, was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
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