A north-east man – who carried out a string of child pornography charges, as well as secretly filming men undress in a gym – has avoided jail.
Robert Stewart, 35, appeared for sentencing at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday, after admitting the offences at an earlier hearing.
The court heard Stewart, who lives at 18f Elmbank Road in Aberdeen, downloaded 11 indecent videos of children between December 18, 2013, and March 2, 2014, at his home and another unknown address.
The footage amounted to two hours and 40 minutes in length.
Six of the videos were categorised as level two, three were level three and two were level four, with level one being the most explicit.
He also distributed a video of children on a file sharing website at his home address, between February 26, 2014, and March 2, 2014.
In addition, Stewart previously admitted filming the occupants of the men’s changing room in the city’s DW Sports Fitness Club, Beach Boulevard Retail Park, while they were urinating and undressing – between August 21 and November 21, 2012.
Solicitor David Sutherland told the court his client accepted responsibility for the offences, but insisted the video had been taken from his computer by someone else using the peer-to-peer network.
Mr Sutherland argued that Stewart had shown a willingness to reform and had voluntarily sought support to address his problems.
He also stressed his client had been given a positive report by the social work department and had shown remorse for his actions, and asked that the court consider an alternative to a custodial sentence.
Sentencing Stewart to 200 hours of unpaid work and placing him on the sex offenders register for three years, Sheriff Graham Buchanan said: “People who appear before this court charged with offences of this kind very often go to prison and obviously I have had to give regard to whether imprisonment is an appropriate disposal in this case.
“You have no previous conviction, and the social work report appears to be impressed by your apparent determination to address and resolve the problems which are detailed in the report, not only that you have taken steps by your own initiative to address these problems.”
Sheriff Buchanan also placed Stewart under a supervision order of three years and ordered him to complete the Moving Forward, Making Changes programme.