An Aberdeen paedophile who downloaded more than 1,500 indecent images of children donned a bizarre latex mask as he fled court.
John Taylor, 34, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after being found guilty at trial of possessing the sick hoard of images – many of which were of the most serious category.
Taylor – who downloaded the child abuse material over nearly four months – claimed his vile offence would “haunt him for the rest of his life”.
As Taylor left the court building, he donned a full latex mask, hat and sunglasses in a desperate attempt to disguise his identity.
It was stated that he downloaded the hoard of images at an address on Alexander Avenue, Kingseat, Aberdeenshire between June 30 and October 15 2020.
Taylor has accepted responsibility to ‘some extent’
It was stated that the total amount of indecent images of children found in Taylor’s possession was almost 1,700.
Of those images discovered by cybercrime officers, 441 were of the most serious category, Category A.
Around 617 were deemed to be Category B and 636 were Category C.
Defence solicitor Caitlin Pirie told the court that her client has “accepted responsibility to some extent” for his offences but “maintains his position from the trial”.
“He has shown remorse, displayed regret for his actions and is aware of the impact of offending of this nature,” the solicitor said.
She added: “He is disgusted that he has been convicted of such an offence – he accepts entirely that this offence will haunt him for the rest of his life.”
Sentencing Taylor, Sheriff Andrew Miller told him that while most of the images were of the less serious categories, “over 400 were of the most extreme”.
Sheriff Miller said: “This is an extremely serious matter and the court needs to consider a period of imprisonment, because it’s well recognised that anyone who is found downloading these appalling images fuels the worldwide demand for them”.
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Miller sentenced Taylor, of Fraser Road, Aberdeen, to a community payback order with supervision for one year and ordered him to carry out 270 hours of unpaid work.
He also placed Taylor on the sex offenders register for one year.
As Taylor fled across Union Street wearing his bizarre disguise, he declined to comment to our reporter.
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