A registered sex offender was caught with indecent images and videos of children on his phone, as well as an undeclared Snapchat account under an alias.
Ryan Chlopuk was subject to routine police checks, which uncovered the images and account on his Huawei mobile phone.
He was subsequently arrested and told officers he was “not surprised” that he was being detained.
Chlopuk, of Saltburn, Invergordon, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court where he pled guilty to one charge of taking, permitting to be taken, or making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children.
He also admitted failing without reasonable excuse to comply with the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
Routine visit found indecent images
Fiscal depute David Morton told the court that on February 12 2021 two detective constables had attended at Chlopuk’s home address to carry out a “routine visit” and perform checks required of those on the sex offender’s register.
The officers inspected and then seized a Huawei mobile phone belonging to Chlopuk.
Further examination of the phone uncovered 35 indecent videos and 13 indecent still images of children on the device.
A total of 22 of the videos and one of the images were classified as category A – the most severe. Nine of the videos and three of the images were category B and the rest were category C.
All of the images and videos were located in “an inaccessible location on the phone”.
Offender had Snapchat alias
The 29-year-old’s phone also contained an “active Snapchat account” within the Snapchat application, with the username “jakethedaddy20”. Under the terms of his registration, Chlopuk was required to notify police within three days of any aliases used online.
Chlopuk was later arrested and charged and told officers: “I am surprised at the timing but not the arrest.”
Defence solicitor Clare Russell suggested to Sheriff Sara Matheson that a pre-sentencing report might be helpful to the court and the sheriff agreed.
She deferred sentence to next month for the production of a criminal justice social work report and again placed Chlopuk on the sex offenders register, with the length of registration to be determined at sentencing.
