A married father-of-one was found guilty yesterday of keeping a hidden stash of child pornography at his home in the north-east.
Nearly 1,500 obscene images were uncovered on computers seized from Andrew Elrick’s house in Mintlaw. The collection dated back to 2005.
At the time, the property was used as a base for his wife, a registered child minder.
The explicit pictures found by computer analysts featured children as young as three.
Elrick lost his job at Peterhead power station when the allegations came to light last year, while restrictions were also placed on his wife’s work.
The 53-year-old always denied having anything to do with the illicit files and went on trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court this week.
Yesterday, after a three-day sitting, jurors unanimously found Elrick guilty of possessing indecent pictures of children between May 2005 and December 2012.
He was also convicted of taking, or permitting to be taken or made, illicit photographs.
Elrick, whose address is listed on court papers as 18 Brae Crescent, Mintlaw, was placed on the sex offenders register.
He will be sentenced next month.
The court heard that police swooped on the family home just after 8am on December 29, 2012.
Officers were investigating reports that Elrick’s IP address had been used to access child pornography through a file-sharing website. Elrick was in the house at the time.
Speaking from the witness box, he said he was “amazed” when officers presented him with their search warrant.
Police seized a home-built computer tower, a laptop, several hard drives and memory sticks.
He insisted that he had not viewed or downloaded indecent pictures of children. “I don’t have any that I know of on my computer,” he told officers.
Giving evidence, Detective Constable Paul Stephen, 40, described Elrick’s demeanour during the interview as “jovial embarrassment”.
Elrick told jurors he felt “sickened” when police told him images of children had been found on his computer devices.
During cross-examination by fiscal depute Elaine Ward, Elrick said he could not explain why more than 1,400 images had been found on the devices taken from his home.
Sheriff Alison Stirling told Elrick, a first-time offender, that she could not say how long he would remain subject to the notification requirements of the sex offenders list. She deferred sentence for background reports until April 27.