An Aberdeenshire teen has been given community service after being found with hundreds of child sexual abuse images.
Michael Wright, 18, admitted having the indecent images and videos on his devices and also pled guilty to sharing them online – claiming he only did so to “make friends”.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told that police were given a tip-off that indecent images of children had been uploaded on the website Reddit.
Evidence found in house
Fiscal depute Andrew Mann said officers traced the uploads to usernames linked to Wright and carried out searches of his parents’ properties in July 2023.
Mr Mann said a total of 300 images and 147 videos were found on Wright’s devices – with 84 videos being in the highest and most disturbing category.
Chat logs were also found in which officers found Wright had shared videos online between June 2022 and January 2023.
Mr Mann said: “[Wright] exchanged multiple images and videos containing child abuse material with other online users.
“During the conversation, they both discussed the trade of child sexual abuse material and methods to obtain same via accessing the internet.”
Trying to be popular
Speaking on behalf of Wright, his defence solicitor Mike Burnett said his client was 15 when the offending began and added: “He has had a difficult upbringing and home life.
“It is a relatively small number of images.
“He seems to have found a small number of acquaintances in this group.”
He went on to say Wright had been seeking to communicate with people and to “gain popularity”, adding: “He did not get any sexual gratification from it – and did know this was illegal.
“He was not the original creator of the images.”
Sentencing
Sheriff Morag McLaughlan told Wright: “Be under no illusion how very serious this is.
“I think you need to do some program work to fully understand your behaviour and guard against any repetition of that.”
She placed Wright, of Dalrymple Circle, Blackburn, under supervision for two years and ordered that he carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, giving him 18 months for completion.