A Fraserburgh man has been jailed after admitting to downloading more than 10 hours of sickening videos and hundreds of indecent images – with some involving toddlers.
Mark Duthie, 42, pled guilty to the offences, claiming he had just been “curious” to see the images.
Fiscal depute Ruaridh McAllister told the court that Duthie’s house had been raided in November 2021 and police had seized his mobile phone, laptop and a tablet.
After searching through them, the police found hundreds of indecent images of children – some involving toddlers – and video footage with a total running time of 10 hours and 10 minutes.
Mr McAllister said that when Duthie was later interviewed by police he had told them he had only been “curious” and had experienced an “adrenaline rush” when he downloaded the material.
‘You are fuelling the global child abuse trade’
Duthie’s defence agent, Sam Milligan, told the court that this was his client’s first offence and he had a background of alcohol abuse and mental health issues.
He added: “He has had no further offending in the interim two-year period.”
Duthie was found to have downloaded the material between June 13 and November 27 2021.
Sheriff Craig Findlater pointed out that the “vast majority” of the material found had been Category A – that being the most offensive – and that there had been more than 10 hours of video footage.
He said: “This is a very serious offence. You are, by downloading this material, fuelling the global child abuse trade and the sexual abuse of children.
“There were more than 200 videos and 160 of the 1000 images found were Category A.
“In some of the images, the children involved were toddlers.”
He sentenced Duthie, of Maconochie Place, to 13 months in prison and added him to the sex offenders register.
Duthie showed no emotion as he was handcuffed and led away.