A Nairn paedophile who shared an image of a child in their underwear and described her as “young and fresh” is now behind bars.
Francis Ward was snared after he made the comment to an undercover police officer on a messaging app that he used to share sick images and videos with other paedophiles.
A court heard a search of his home recovered hundreds of indecent images of children – some younger than school age.
Ward, 51, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing having previously admitted charges of taking, permitting to be taken or making indecent images of children as well as possessing and distributing them in 2023 and 2024.
At an earlier hearing, fiscal depute Emily Hood had told the court that it was on December 18 2023 that Ward, using a pseudonym, contacted an undercover police officer’s Kik messaging account.
Nairn paedophile shared sick images
He immediately shared an image of a young child in her underwear and described the child as “young and fresh”, she said.
Ward went on to share further images and claimed to be performing a solo sex act.
Following the chat, a file was passed to Police Scotland and a search warrant was carried out on March 14 last year.
When officers arrived at his home, Ward told them: “What you are looking for is on the tablet on the bedside table.”
The sentencing hearing heard from fiscal depute Victoria Silver, who explained that subsequent examination of the Ward’s devices had recovered more than 500 unique images and more than 300 unique videos.
The videos had a combined run time of six hours and 12 minutes.
A number of the files recovered were deemed to be Category A – the most serious, with one showing the horrific abuse of a child aged between two and four.
There were also computer-generated images created by adding the face of a child-actor to images of females engaged in intimate behaviours or posing sexually.
Evidence was also found of the accused sending and receiving indecent images of children through social media and the Kik messenger application.
Paedophile shared images with others
The court heard Ward and his online contacts would also share images of children and “make sexual comments about them”.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald had initially deferred sentencing on Ward for the preparation of a criminal justice social work report.
She also requested Ward be assessed for suitability for the Moving Forward 2 Change programme, which she described as: “A programme for sex offenders like you and people who enjoy watching images of children being horrifically abused.”
But when the case came before Sheriff Ian Cruickshank for sentencing, he rejected Ward’s defence agent’s representations that his client was suitable for a community-based disposal, instead jailing Ward for a total of 18 months.
He also placed Ward, of Gordon Street, Nairn, on the sex offenders register for 10 years.