An Ellon pensioner who told police he had little interest in child abuse material was later found with 10,000 indecent images and videos on his devices, some of which involved toddlers.
Richard Kearsey, 80, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted downloading tens of thousands of child images alongside more than 11 days’ worth of indecent video footage.
Much of the shocking content found on Kearsey’s electronic devices was of the most serious category and is so disturbing it cannot be described in this report.
The vile images and videos discovered also featured boys and girls aged only two years old, the court was told.
Kearsey claimed he ‘did not take a lot of interest’ in material
Fiscal depute Jennifer Pritchard told the court that on January 18 last year, police received intelligence that a device belonging to Kearsey had connected to the internet between February 16 and February 28 2022.
It was established that this device contained child abuse material that was available for sharing.
A search warrant was executed for Kearsey’s address in Ellon where the police found a series of electronic devices capable of connecting to the internet.
Kearsey was arrested and taken to Kittybrewster Police Station for questioning, where he admitted downloading indecent images and videos approximately eight years ago.
He explained that the content mainly included men having sex with children and that the children would generally be aged between three and 12 years old.
The pensioner also explained that he “did not take a lot of interest” in the material but added that he had downloaded it to micro-card that was now in a Samsung tablet.
“The accused did not provide an explanation for why he saved them but acknowledged it was so he could go back and look at the material again,” Ms Pritchard said.
“He further explained that he no longer searched for child sex abuse material as he already has the websites he needs and he had not searched for a few years.
“The accused believes that around February 2022 he downloaded previously saved child abuse material onto a micro-card and moved it from his laptop onto his tablet – he denied making any further searches for such material.”
Thousands of images – many disturbing
The devices recovered from Kearsey’s property search were examined and found to contain a total of 10,943 indecent images and videos of children.
More than 3,000 of those found were of the most serious Category A, around 2,500 were Category B, while more than 5,000 were Category C.
The creation dates for this material were between September 2021 and February 2023, showing Kearsey had been downloading, despite his assurances to police.
The children featured were boys and girls estimated to be between two and 15 years of age, with some of the material being considered sadomasochistic.
The cumulative runtime for the video footage found was 264 hours and 57 minutes, which equates to approximately 11 days and 57 minutes.
In the dock, Kearsey pleaded guilty to one charge of downloading indecent images of children and a second charge of being in possession of child sex abuse material.
Defence solicitor Neil Shand told the court that Kearsey is currently being treated for cancer and acts as a full-time carer for his wife, who suffers from dementia and needs almost 24-hour care.
The solicitor said Kearsey was currently receiving chemotherapy and will do so until April next year.
Sheriff Ian Wallace said he considered that Kearsey had no previous convictions, his age, his struggling physical health and the health of his wife.
He added that he believed that what would have been a custodial sentence could be reduced to and substituted to a community payback order.
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Wallace made Kearsey, of Craigievar Crescent, Ellon, to a community payback order with supervision and ordered him to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.
The sheriff also ordered Kearsey to take part in a sex offenders programme and made him subject to the sex offenders register for two years.
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