An Oldmeldum woman has been placed on the sex offenders register after she sent a video of a child being sexually abused to her sister.
Chichi Dallas, 42, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted forwarding the indecent video – which was of the most serious category – via the online messaging app WhatsApp.
However, it was accepted by the court that Dallas had no “deviant sexual purpose” when sending the message.
Her solicitor told the court that Dallas sent the message in order to highlight child abuse without fully understanding there were laws against sending indecent images in Scotland.
Police raided Chichi Dallas’ home
Fiscal depute Brain Young told the court that in May 2020 police were carrying out an investigation into another person, who they suspected of being in possession of indecent images of children, when they discovered Dallas had come into the possession of such a video.
“An enquiry commenced and on July 3 2020 a search warrant was executed at Ms Dallas’ home in Oldmeldrum,” Mr Young said.
“Various electronic devices were seized and subjected to a cybercrime examination.
“The examination revealed that via the WhatsApp messaging platform, Ms Dallas had received a Category A indecent video showing a young child involved in a penetrative sexual activity with an adult.”
As part of the investigation, cybercrime officers also discovered that Dallas had forwarded the four-minute 35-second long video to her sister on March 20 2020.
A further Category A image was also found on Dallas’ phone but was classed as inaccessible.
Dallas pleaded guilty to one charge of downloading an indecent video of a child and a second charge of distributing or showing child abuse material.
‘Look what was sent to me’
Defence solicitor Mike Monro told the court that his client was part of an ethnic group from Nigeria and that she had joined a community group on WhatsApp.
“It was a huge group and you never know who is all in these groups,” he said.
“The police were involved in investigating someone in England – Ms Dallas has never seen him or spoken to him.
“It then transpires that this person was using social media for illegal purposes and this image found its way to my client through WhatsApp.”
Mr Monro went on to say that later Dallas was in conversation with her sister on WhatsApp and they got onto the topic of child abuse.
He said Dallas’ sister had said that child abuse was “prevalent in her area” and that his client then forwarded the video.
“It was as if to say ‘look what was sent to me’ or ‘these are the types of things that are happening under our nose’,” Mr Monro added.
Sheriff Graham Buchanan stated that he accepted that Dallas had not sent the indecent content with “any deviant sexual purpose” and that she hadn’t quite understood the law in Scotland against sending this type of material.
He made Chichi Dallas, of Coutens Park, Oldmeldrum, subject to a community payback order with supervision for 12 months.
Sheriff Buchanan also placed her on the sex offenders register for one year.
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