A paedophile found with thousands of indecent images of children had one of the worst photos police have ever seen.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that when police raided Ian Hector’s home on May 19 last year they discovered more than 2,700 pictures of children on his computer, mobile phone and on a USB stick hidden in his garden shed.
On the 41-year-old’s USB pen drive cybercrime officers found an image that was described as “one of the most severe the cybercrime analysts had ever seen”.
The pictures and videos featured girls aged between nine and 15 years old.
Further inaccessible images – mostly of girls – featured children aged between one and 14-years-of-age.
His solicitor claimed he had been curious after downloading a BitTorrent site for movies.
USB stick was hidden in garden shed
In total, Hector downloaded 22 Category A, 27 Category B and 2,717 Category C pictures over 16 months.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of downloading the images and another charge of being in possession of thousands of pictures.
Fiscal depute Christy Ward told the court that a search warrant was executed for Hector’s address in May last year with officers finding a cache of vile images on the seized devices.
The pictures had all been downloaded and stored by Hector between January 18 2020 and May 19 last year.
During a subsequent police interview, Hector admitted he had a USB stick of more graphic images hidden in his garden shed.
Ms Ward said: “It is noted within the cybercrime report that one of the inaccessible Category A images found within the unallocated space on the USB pen drive was described as one of the most severe the cybercrime analysts had ever seen.”
‘He knows society takes these types of offences very seriously’
Defence agent Alex Burn told the court that Hector had come across an image one night while drunk and home alone on a BitTorrent site he used for downloading films.
“He came across this material and he does accept that he did watch it – he says it was out of curiosity.
“He regards this as a particularly serious offence and he knows society takes these types of offences very seriously.
“He is deeply remorseful for his actions.”
Sheriff Andrew Miller told Hector described Hector’s offences as “undoubtedly” serious.
He added: “It’s well known that anyone who downloads or looks at images of this kind is contributing to the vile industry.
Sheriff Miller sentenced Hector to a community payback order with supervision for two years and ordered him to take part in a sex offender’s programme.
He also placed Hector, of Fettercairn, on the sex offender’s register for two years.
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