A Newburgh paedophile was snared by police with even more child abuse material just months after his first conviction for the crime.
Jayme Williams, 31, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, where he admitted being in possession of around 118 images of children on his phone, many of which were of the most serious category.
Williams, a former bank worker, was sentenced in March last year after he was caught with around 100 images on his devices, but told police he hadn’t “meant” to download them and hadn’t been “purposefully” seeking them out.
Regarding his new crimes, his solicitor, Michael Burnett, expressed dismay that Williams was caught with more illegal images less than four months after his last court appearance.
He told the court that since Williams’ first conviction, his client’s whole life had “come crashing down”.
Williams’ phone seized by police
Fiscal depute Emma Petersen told the court that on May 20 last year, a search warrant was granted for Williams’ home after intelligence had been received that a device at that address had been downloading child abuse material.
“A red Samsung phone was provided by the accused and seized,” Ms Petersen said, adding that the phone was examined by cybercrime officers and found to contain child sex abuse material
She stated that 52 Category A images, 30 Category B images and 36 Category C images were discovered on the device.
All the children featured in the images were underage.
It follows Williams court appearance last year where he was placed on the sex offenders register for two years for having a similar number of indecent images on his phone.
In the dock, Williams pleaded guilty to one charge of downloading child abuse material.
‘Here we are again’
Defence solicitor Michael Burnett told the court that his client’s actions had occurred “shortly after the conclusion of the earlier indictment” and added that this was Williams second conviction for the same crime.
“Mr Williams said all of that came crashing down, he lost his job, and his wife lost her job due to her association with him. I said all of this on the last occasion and here we are again,” Mr Burnett said.
“Not long after the conclusion of that first case, Mr Williams started doing it again.
“It’s a real illness he has,” the solicitor said, adding: “He doesn’t know why he is drawn to this material, but he needs to stop this kind of offending.”
Sheriff Lesley Johnstone told Williams that he had committed this offence while subject to a community payback order imposed by the court on the last occasion.
Paedophile sentenced
“Your actions were deliberate, planned and carried out for your own sexual gratification,” she said.
Adding that she had strongly considered imposing a custodial sentence, the sheriff said she deemed a high tariff order with programme work a “more appropriate sentence” for Williams.
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Johnston sentenced Williams to a community payback order with supervision and ordered him to undertake 300 hours of unpaid work.
In order to “protect the public”, she also made Williams subject to a sexual harm prevention order, meaning all his use of electronic devices will be monitored, and ordered him to take part in a sex offender programme.
Sheriff Johnson also placed Williams, of Kestrel Road, Newburgh, on the sex offenders register for three years.
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