An Aberdeen student has avoided prison after being found with more than 3,700 indecent images of children – many of which were described as “sadistic”.
Sean Christie, 26, admitted being in possession of thousands of pictures and videos of young boys and girls within a Cloud application on his mobile phone between July 17 2017 and December 4 2020.
The images discovered by police on Christie’s Apple iPhone involved children as young as six months right up to 15 years of age.
Many of them were found to include children engaged in “sadistic sexual activity” and taking part in sex acts with animals and adults.
A total of more than 3,750 images of child exploitation were ultimately discovered on Christie’s device, with over 700 deemed to be category A, the most serious.
Two category A videos were also discovered.
He pleaded guilty at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to one charge of being in possession of indecent images of children.
Cops found images and videos in ‘inaccessible’ folder
Fiscal depute Brian Young told the court: “The police executed an evidential search warrant at Great Northern Road, Aberdeen at 9pm on Friday December 11, 2020, having received intelligence of an upload of a child sexual abuse image to the internet.
“At the time the accused was not present but returned to the locus, at which point police seized his mobile telephone.
“The material was found within an inaccessible folder associated with the ‘mega’ application, a Cloud storage and file hosting service, which had been previously installed on the phone.”
Solicitor says accused was ‘devastated, embarrassed and ashamed’
Defence agent Andrew Ormiston told the court that Christie had experienced some “harmful” incidents as a young child.
He added: “He recognised that he needs help with this particular issue.
“Mr Christie is devastated, embarrassed and ashamed of his conduct and was so shattered by his behaviour that he often found it difficult to talk about.”
Sheriff Graham Buchanan told the 26-year old that he accepted that he was a “somewhat vulnerable individual”.
But added: “This offending took place when you were a young and immature person.
“I am entitled to impose a custodial sentence, however, I am prepared to deal with you in a manner that will be a direct alternative to prison.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Buchanan sentenced Christie, of Ruthrieston Circle, Aberdeen, to a community payback order with supervision for three years and 130 hours of unpaid work.
He also placed Christie on the sex offenders register.
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