A man who downloaded 142 images of child abuse has been told by a sheriff that his crime was “by no means victimless”.
Michael Fallows, 20, appeared for sentencing before Sheriff Gary Aitken after previously admitting to possessing the indecent images.
Inverness Sheriff Court had been told that 43 of them were the most extreme kinds of abuse.
The images were found on a Samsung device after police received intelligence that they had been downloaded on March 5 2021.
Officers then raided a property at Montrose Mansions in Corpach, Fort William, and seized Fallows’ phone.
Fallows a low risk of reoffending
A digital forensic examination revealed the scale of Fallows’ criminal offending.
Solicitor Clare Russell told the court that Fallows, who’s considered at low risk of reoffending, accepted full responsibility for his troubling behaviour and did not seek to minimise his offending.
She said: “He has now, with the benefit of hindsight, acknowledged the serious harm”.
Ms Russell submitted letters of reference to the court on Fallow’s behalf from a previous employer and an organisation with whom he had been volunteering.
“He is clearly a gentleman who doesn’t want to reoffend, particularly in his manner and who will do anything to avoid that happening,” she told the sheriff.
Child abuse ‘fuelled by people like him’
Sheriff Aitken sentenced Fallows, of Friar Street, Inverness to 150 hours of unpaid community work and two years of social work supervision.
He noted: “This is abuse of children watched second-hand. It is fuelled by people like him surfing the net. Offending of this kind is by no means victimless – far from it”.
Fallows was also placed on the sex offenders register for two years.
In October 2021, Fallows launched Michael’s Culinary School, which offered one-to-one cookery classes for Thai, Italian and Chinese food.
He converted the living room area of his home into a commercial kitchen-style space to deliver lessons showing people how to make budget dishes such as stir-fry, macaroni cheese or curry.
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