A sheriff has decided against jailing a voyeur who secretly filmed up the skirts of fellow university students and used night vision technology to spy on children.
University of the Highlands and Islands computer science student Iain Grant also had a stash of videos featuring a woman who he had followed on foot on a number of occasions and discreetly filmed without her knowledge.
Sentencing had been deferred on the 46-year-old Muir of Ord man after Sheriff Sara Matheson call for reports.
When he appeared again at Inverness Sheriff Court this week, defence solicitor advocate Clare Russell said he made comments in the report which concerned her and would concern the sheriff.
She added: “He also tells me he did not say that the children being abused appeared to be enjoying it but he accepts he said there was not a lot of force involved.”
Hundreds of indecent images and voyeur videos
He also pleaded guilty to possessing 631 indecent images. Of those, 239 were “extreme” images of children being sexually abused.
The court was told that 21 videos featured the same woman, who he followed and recorded on a number of train journeys between Muir of Ord and Inverness.
She told police she felt “violated” and “quite alarmed” by Grant’s actions.
After receiving intelligence, police raided his mother and stepfather’s home where he lived.
When they arrived at the property, Grant told them: “I know what you are looking for. It’s me you are looking for.”
Officers seized electronic devices and 71 video files.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair said: “They were of a voyeuristic nature, some recorded in night vision at night.
“It was comings and goings of neighbours in gardens and children playing. He was just spying on them – invading their privacy but not zooming into bedrooms.”
Some of Grant’s videos were entitled “spyphoto” or “spyvideo”, the court was told.
Other videos were taken on the Inverness campus of the University of the Highlands and Islands.
“In these videos, the camera is activated above the desk and it is then positioned underneath the desk in what appears to be an effort to film the legs, genital area and effectively ‘upskirt’ the female student seated at the opposite side of the desk from the accused,” Mrs Gair explained.
Sheriff’s comments
Sheriff Matheson told Grant, of Highfield, Muir of Ord, that while he had passed the threshold of a custodial sentence, by putting him on a programme for sex offenders “there is a prospect of reducing your propensity of re-offending”.
However, she warned him he would be jailed if he broke any of her conditions, which last for the next three years.
During that time, he will be closely supervised by social workers and police.
He also has to complete 270 hours of unpaid community work within 12 months as well as participate in the “Moving forward Making Changes” programme.
In addition, he was placed on the sex offender’s register until 2026.
The 10 additional conditions placed upon him included not owning more than one mobile phone or computer capable of accessing the internet, not accessing the web from any other device, not using encryption, deleting search history or using social media sites and allowing his supervising officers to inspect any device he accessed.