A north-east pervert who collected more than 900 indecent images of children over a 10-year period has been spared jail.
Christopher Wakefield, 62, had the images filed in organised folders and duplicated across multiple devices at his Boddam home, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson said police received intelligence that Wakefield was in possession of indecent images of children and so carried out a search warrant of his home on March 2 last year.
“Several electronic devices were seized and examined,” she said.
“The earliest image was created on March 2, 2011. They were held and organised within folders, some of which had been given names suggestive of containing indecent images, for example ‘young boys’ and ‘young girls’.”
The court heard a total of 902 images were found, of which 181 were rated the most serious Category A, 205 were Category B and 516 were Category C.
Huge collection was duplicated
A further 34 videos were found, of which 26 were rated most serious and had a combined running time of more than three hours.
That collection was copied over some seven devices.
Wakefield pled guilty to two charges of taking or permitting to be taken indecent photographs of children over a 10-year period.
Defence agent Leonard Burkinshaw said his client, a first-offender, was a “low risk” to the public and asked for the recommendations made by social workers to be followed.
Not a victimless crime
Sheriff Andrew Miller agreed and handed Wakefield a community payback order comprising 200 hours of unpaid work and three years of supervision.
He told him: “These offences involved essentially accessing and downloading to devices indecent images of children.
“This is by certainly no means a victimless crime. Searching for and accessing images of this nature contributes to a worldwide demand for vile images of child abuse.”
Wakefield, of Earls Court, Boddam, must also take part in the Moving Forward: Making Changes rehabilitation programme and was placed on the sex offenders register.
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