Pornographic images of a young woman were sent to her social media friends via a deactivated account of hers, a jury was told yesterday.
Former work colleagues and the sister of the alleged victim gave evidence at Inverness Sheriff Court in the trial of 25-year-old Daniel Garden, of Woodlands Park, Inverness.
He denies possessing and downloading child pornography and bestiality videos, posting the videos on the woman’s Facebook account without authority and distributing them.
Earlier in the trial, the court was told that her Facebook had been hacked into. She said she was denied access so set up a new account.
An ex-colleague, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said the graphic video of a dog and the woman, as well as naked images of her appeared on Facebook Messenger from the old account he knew was deactivated by her.
“I was shocked and phoned the police. It was not the kind of thing she would have sent me.” he said.
Another friend said she reported the videos and stills she received to Facebook. “I kept reporting them but it took quite a while before they were taken down.”
The trial heard that in July 2014, Garden’s computer had been seized with child porn and the bestiality videos found on his hard-drive.
It wasn’t until November, 2016 that police discovered the identity of the woman involved.
PC Greg Macdonald led the investigation after the woman’s mother saw the images of her daughter on Facebook and reported it.
The constable said he interviewed Garden.
He was asked by defence solicitor Graham Mann, who had revealed to the jury that his client was autistic, if Garden had said anything.
“No. He put his hands on the table and just stared at them.” PC Macdonald replied.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart closed the Crown case and Mr Mann will decide this morning if he is leading any evidence.
The trial is expected to finish today.