A hoarder was caught with over a thousand indecent images and videos of children for a second time after cleaners were sent to tidy his home.
The disturbing discovery was made just weeks after Keith Williams appeared in the dock, following a police search of his home.
Officers found 1,734 indecent images and 832 videos at the Lochinver property and the 50-year-old ferryman was later released on bail pending sentence in August last year.
Then three weeks later, Williams’ landlord sent cleaners to sort out his cluttered home.
But their efforts revealed a second stash of 1,434 images and seven videos that were also of an indecent nature, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
Remanded in custody
Police, who were contacted by the cleaners, carried out a second search of the 50-year-old’s address at Culag Gardens.
Officers confiscated more devices and discovered over a thousand still images and videos.
They included the most extreme category of indecent images of children, the court heard.
Williams was arrested again and appeared in the dock on September 15 last year, when he was remanded in custody.
Defence solicitor David Patterson claimed that the police had missed the second haul of illegal material during their original search of the property because it was so untidy at the time.
‘He used alcohol, cannabis and porn as escapism’
Mr Patterson asked the sheriff not to impose a prison sentence on his client and said Williams was willing to participate in rehabilitation programmes designed to prevent re-offending.
“There is little that can be advanced to excuse this offending behaviour. He doesn’t fully understand why he behaves and thinks in this way,” Mr Patterson explained.
“He wasn’t working at the time and was suffering from depression and he used alcohol, cannabis and porn as escapism.”
Williams, of Culag Gardens in Lochinver, admitted possessing indecent images of children and breaching his bail conditions.
Severe restrictions imposed
Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald agreed to hand Williams a community-based sentence.
She imposed severe restrictions upon Williams that include him not being allowed to have any unsupervised contact with children.
He also received a three-year supervision order and was placed on the sex offenders register for the same period of time.
Williams must also join the Moving Forward Making Changes rehabilitation programme for sex offenders.
He is not allowed to enter any parks or playgrounds where children may be present, have friendships or relationships with anyone who cares for a child and cannot have more than one mobile phone or computer which has internet access.
Williams also has to allow inspection of the internet-enabled devices and reveal his passwords to his supervising officers.
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