A 58-year-old Inverness man whose road crash led to him being prosecuted for having indecent images of children was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work yesterday.
Richard Purdie, of Towerhill Road, was also ordered to remain under social work supervision for three years, placed on the Sex Offender’s Register for the same period and ordered to participate in a sex offender’s rehabilitation programme.
At an earlier Inverness Sheriff Court hearing, Sheriff Margaret Neilson was told that police were called to a single vehicle collision near Loch Ruthven on December 28, 2014 and found Purdie alone in the vehicle.
Fiscal depute Michelle Molley said Purdie admitted to officers that he had accessed ‘bad thing’ things on his computer and made a reference to ‘paedophiles should be shot’.
Following his ‘confession’, police went to his home in Glenshiel Place and seized a laptop computer and portable hard drive.
They were forensically examined and 50 images of female teenage and younger children were found on the laptop.
Another 20 indecent images were also recovered on the hard drive.
First offender Purdie admitted downloading them between July 25,2009 and December 28, 2014.
Defence agent Willie Young said: “These offences have already been punitive for my client. He had to resign from his job, he has lost community respect, it has had a devastating effect on his wife as he is no longer with her, and he has lost contact with his son and grandchildren.
“This was a serious error of judgement.”
