A marine biologist who claimed someone else had downloaded scores of child abuse videos onto his laptop has been found guilty of the offence.
Christopher McWhirter, 32, was on trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court accused of possessing and downloading indecent videos of children and extreme pornography on his personal computer when police raided his house in December 2021.
When McWhirter’s device was examined by cybercrime officers they found around 180 videos in sub folders on his laptop marked “filth” and “my dirty life”.
A number of the children featured in the hours and hours of video footage, some as young as four, the court was told.
McWhirter, originally from Buckie, had vehemently denied downloading the videos, describing the practice as “sick” and “vile”.
But a jury took less than an hour and a half to find McWhirter unanimously guilty of having the videos on his computer and possessing extreme pornography involving adult females and dogs.
The jury also found him guilty by majority of downloading the footage.
Accused to ‘perhaps’ prepare for prison sentence
Following the verdict, Sheriff Philip Mann told McWhirter: “You have been found guilty of all three charges on the indictment.
“You do not have any previous convictions and I will be considering all available sentencing options.”
Sheriff Mann also told McWhirter that he needed to be satisfied that there was no alternative to a prison sentence before imposing one, but told him to “perhaps prepare yourself for the possibility”.
During the trial, McWhirter made a number of claims in relation to how the images ended up on his laptop.
He stated that he had made enemies on the social media site Reddit and through online gaming – and that someone from one of those communities had hacked into his computer and downloaded indecent material.
The marine biologist also claimed that the videos may have gotten onto his computer when he was downloading films and audiobooks to watch when he worked on boats in the North Sea.
McWhirter placed on sex offenders register
Fiscal depute Kirsty Martin told the court that police had discovered nearly five hours’ worth of video footage involving boys and girls aged between four and 15 years old on McWhirter’s laptop.
Much of the content is too disturbing to be reported.
Jurors were shown a police interview, in which it was put to McWhirter that he had downloaded the indecent content through the username “Tophe”, which was linked to an email address.
However, McWhirter strenuously denied this, describing the practice as “sick”.
“I wouldn’t ever look at anything like that, I have no idea why it’s even there,’ he said, adding: “Who’s stupid enough to keep something like that on their laptop?”
During the interview, one police officer suggested to McWhirter that downloading indecent material might be a “problem” that he has.
“I do not download child porn,” he said, adding: “It’s disgusting. There’s no way I would download stuff as vile as that.”
Sentence was deferred on McWhirter until next month in order for a criminal justice social work report and a restriction of liberty assessment order to be carried out.
Sheriff Mann also placed McWhirter, of Ashvale Place, Aberdeen, on the sex offenders register.
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