An Aberdeen paedophile has been handed unpaid work after being caught with more than 30 hours of vile sexual videos of children.
Martin McHugh was caught when he accessed the internet with a device that contained child sexual abuse material.
Police were able to track the 35-year-old’s IP address and raided his home on Stafford Street.
It was only when McHugh’s devices were examined that the true horrifying extent of his disturbing collection was uncovered.
Fiscal depute Rebecca Thompson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that police received intelligence on January 18 last year that linked McHugh’s IP address to indecent images of children.
A search warrant was granted and executed on February 8 2023, with McHugh advising an external hard drive contained the illegal material.
Officers seized the device along with two portable drives and a desktop drive which McHugh handed over the passwords for.
Across the four devices, police found 51 images and 74 videos which were deemed as category A, the most serious kind.
There were also 47 images and 46 videos in category B, and 154 images and 68 videos in category C.
Ms Thompson told the court: “The cumulative run time of the videos was approximately 30 hours and 5 minutes.
“The earliest creation date of an inaccessible file containing a child sexual exploitation and abuse image was June 21 2011.”
McHugh, of Stafford Street, Aberdeen, pled guilty to taking, permitting to be taken or making, and possession of, indecent images or pseudo-images of children.
Defence agent Andrew Ormiston said his client appeared as a first offender and “expressed remorse” for his actions.
He added: “He’s taken steps already to deal with his inappropriate coping mechanisms.”
Mr Ormiston said McHugh was suffering with his mental health at the time of the offences.
He continued: “Since the discovery of his behaviour, Mr McHugh has refrained from engaging in any similar behaviour.”
Sheriff Ian Wallace placed McHugh on the sex offenders register and ordered him to complete the Moving Forward Making Changes programme.
He also imposed three years of supervision and 120 hours of unpaid work.
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