A teenager downloaded a vile child abuse video – the most extreme of its kind – featuring a six-month-old baby, a court has heard.
Struan Nicol, 19, was caught with 70 images and 18 videos on his devices after police searched his home.
The raid took place following a tip-off about Nicol’s sick online activities.
Officers seized devices used by the teen when they learned an IP address linked with his home address had been used to access child abuse material.
Nicol appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court where he admitted to a charge of taking, permitting to be taken or making indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children.
Video download sparked police probe
He pled guilty to downloading and uploading the disturbing content between 19 November 2018 and 17 January 2022.
Nicol also admitted to breaching a bail condition that prevented him from using websites and apps that allowed the history to be deleted.
He had downloaded and then deleted Snapchat.
Fiscal depute Susan Love told the court that, on December 29 2021, Police Scotland received intelligence that an online account had downloaded a Category A video of a child in January of 2019.
“The child in the video was thought to be approximately six months old,” she said.
‘Children thought to be four to eight years old’
Further intelligence showed a Snapchat account with a similar user name to the one used to download the video had uploaded images of child sexual abuse material to the internet.
“Those children were thought to be approximately four to eight years old,” Ms Love told the court.
Both accounts were using an IP address that was subscribed to Nicol’s home in Inverness.
On January 17 of last year, police searched the Friars Street property.
They were let inside by Nicol, but during the search, they noticed him trying to hide a mobile phone.
It was seized along with a number of other devices, all belonging to Nicol.
70 indecent images and 18 videos
A digital forensic examination revealed the presence of indecent images.
The cybercrime investigation later uncovered 70 indecent photographs and 18 indecent videos of children on the devices.
Five accessible still images, seven inaccessible still images, five accessible videos and three inaccessible videos were all classed as Category A – the most severe.
There were seven accessible Category B videos and the rest of the material was Category C.
After he was arrested, cautioned and charged, Nicol was released on bail on the condition that he wouldn’t use any websites or apps to which their history might be deleted.
‘I was bored’
But a check on him raised suspicions and, following inquiries, Nicol was arrested on suspicion of breaching his bail conditions.
He told officers: “I was bored and downloaded Snapchat and started chatting to randoms”.
The app was subsequently deleted.
Solicitor Declan O’Keefe, who represented Nicol, reserved his comments in mitigation for his client’s sentencing hearing.
Sheriff Sara Matheson deferred sentence on Nicol until next month to allow time for the production of a criminal justice social work report.
He will also be assessed for the ‘Moving Forward: Making Changes’ rehabilitation programme for sex offenders.
The sheriff placed Nicol on the sex offenders register with immediate effect.
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