A man who downloaded more than 500 indecent images of children over an 18-month period has been ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
David Mitchell, 32, had 104 images of the most graphic kind on his mobile phone, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
The 32-year-old, whose address on court papers was given as Hillhead Road, Tornagrain, near Inverness, admitted having downloaded the material between March 8 2019 and September 24 2020.
He had appeared before Sheriff Margaret Neilson in December and sentence had been deferred for a background report.
A search warrant was obtained and his phone was seized.
Mr Weir said: “The accused’s phone was taken from his person, which he identified as his personal mobile and provided the PIN access code required to unlock the phone.”
The court heard that no images were immediately found, but “indicative material” was and so the phone was sent for further analysis.
“The phone was subsequently examined by the forensic computer analysts and was found to contain indecent images of children,” said Mr Weir.
‘I don’t know what to say’
“A total of 589 inaccessible indecent images of children were found,” the fiscal depute told the court.
“This was made up of 104 category A still images, 82 category B still images and 403 category C images.”
The court heard that Mitchell told police when charged: “I don’t know what to say.”
Mitchell was also placed under two years of social work supervision and on the Sex Offender’s Register for the same period.
Defence solicitor Duncan Henderson said: “He has no previous convictions and there is a realistic alternative to custody.”
