A dad-to-be was caught with indecent images of children with sickening file names including “pedo”, “preteen” and even “2yo”.
Cristian Morariu had hundreds of vile images and videos of boys and girls as young as one when police came to his door just after Christmas.
Officers seized various devices, which were later analysed forensically and revealed the horrifying true extent of the 32-year-old’s collection.
The majority of the disturbing images and videos were rated category A – the most serious – and showed young children engaged in sexual activity with adults.
‘He recognises his conduct has placed him in peril’
Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court police received intelligence that child sexual abuse material had been linked to an IP address at Morariu’s address on Lochnagar Road.
A search warrant was executed at the property just after Christmas in 2022 and Morariu was traced inside with his partner’s young son.
Various devices were seized which contained sickening sexual images of children.
A mobile phone was found to contain 18 indecent images, of which eight were deemed category A.
The images showed boys and girls estimated to be between the ages of 2 and 14 years involved in sexual activity with adults and sexualised posing.
A desktop computer had 11 category A images and 16 videos, all but one of which was category A.
Within the “downloads” folder, analysts found subfolders with names indicative of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
It was within these that the videos were found, which again featured children thought to be as young as two years old.
The total play length of the videos was more thab two hours.
‘He’s not shying away from his wrongdoing’
Files were also discovered with titles such as “pedo” and “preteen”.
Others had titles referring to age, for example “2yo” and “9yo”.
On a hard drive device, police discovered a disturbing haul of 365 videos, of which 304 were category A.
These featured boys and girls as young as one year old.
Google Chrome searches revealed Morariu had actively sought out the horrific material.
Morariu, of Lochnagar Road, Aberdeen, pled guilty to possession of, as well as taking, permitting to be taken or making indecent images or pseudo-images of children.
The offences were committed between February 19 2017 and December 27 2022.
Defence agent Andrew Ormiston said his client was in a stable relationship, engaged to be married and was expecting to become a father later this year.
The solicitor went on: “He has displayed a significant level of self-awareness in respect of his offending.
“He recognises his conduct has placed him in peril.
“He’s assessed as presenting a limited risk of further sexual offending.
“He’s been completely candid with the author of the report in terms of why he was offending.”
‘He wishes to better himself’
Mr Ormiston said Morariu had since been made aware of the Stop It Now programme and had completed it.
The lawyer continued: “He’s not shying away from his wrongdoing in the past.
“He wishes to better himself and move away from it.”
Sheriff Ian Wallace ordered Morariu to complete 270 hours of unpaid work and be supervised for two years as a direct alternative to custody.
He also ordered him to complete the Aberdeen Sexual Offenders programme and imposed strict conduct requirements regarding his internet use.
Morariu was also placed on the sex offenders register.
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