A paedophile who was found with a collection of indecent images on his mobile phone has avoided a prison sentence.
Andrew Forbes, 42, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted having around 20 images of children in his possession, all of which were of young girls.
Some of the indecent material found on Forbes’s phone featured girls as young as five years old.
Sheriff Philip Mann told Forbes he should consider himself fortunate this was his first offence and that he’d been caught in possession of a relatively small amount of indecent material.
Images were in secret folder
Fiscal depute Andrew McMann told the court that that at around 7:30am on November 20 2023, police officers executed a search warrant at Forbes’ address in Aberdeen.
Once inside, they seized possession of his mobile phone and following a forensic examination a number of indecent images of children were found, some of which were of the most serious category.
The images found featured children, all girls, estimated to be between five and 13 years old.
Some of the images included adults.
“The images were stored on the device since July 8 2023 in a hidden photo folder which was accessible to the accused,” Mr McMann told the court.
Of the total number of images found, two were deemed Category A, while 18 were Category C.
In the dock, Forbes pleaded guilty to one count of possessing indecent images of children.
‘Wrong and totally unacceptable’
Defence solicitor Neil McRobert told the court that his client had “no previous convictions” and “accepts that he was in possession of these images”.
“Mr Forbes knows that it was wrong and totally unacceptable to have them – he does not look to minimise or blame others for his behaviour,” the solicitor said.
“He has been completely honest about his issues and knows they need to be addressed.”
Sheriff Mann told Forbes that any offence involving children was “serious” but added: “But this is by no means the most serious that this court sees.”
He continued: “The number of images is small, you have no previous convictions, and you have never been to custody before.
“I’m prepared to accept that an alternative to custody is appropriate in this case.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Mann made Forbes, of Porthill Court, Aberdeen, subject to a community payback order with supervision for 18 months and ordered him to undertake 120 hours of unpaid work.
He also placed him on the sex offenders register for 18 months and ordered him to take part in a sex offenders programme.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.