The boss of a north-east offshore firm has avoided a prison sentence after being found with thousands of child sex abuse images.
Police Scotland found more than 2,600 images of children at Baxter ‘Harry’ Anderson’s home in Aberdeenshire.
Officers also found more than 20 videos that contained child sex abuse material.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard Anderson, 67, who is a director of Savannah Marine Surveyors, had created the first file on his laptop more than 12 years ago.
When police raided his home they found pictures and videos of abuse on his laptop, a computer tower and several pen drives at his home.
2,650 still images and 21 videos of child sexual abuse
“At 8.45am on November 3 2021 the accused attended a pre-arranged appointment at Bucksburn Police Station where he was made aware of the existence of the warrant,” Mr Middleton said.
“He agreed to accompany detective constables back to his home address.
“At around 10am the warrant was executed and a systematic search of the locus was conducted.
“A number of items were found, including a computer tower, three pen drives and a black HP laptop and charger.
“The accused identified the devices as belonging to him and provided police with passcode details.
“It was established that the accused was the sole user of the devices.
“Preliminary examinations were carried out and all devices were found to contain child sexual abuse material.”
An examination by the police cybercrime team found 62 Category A images, 50 Category B images and 2,538 that were considered Category C.
In total, 2,650 still images and 21 videos of child sexual abuse material were found.
The videos had a total run time of 54 minutes and 15 seconds.
Anderson pleaded guilty to one charge of downloading indecent photographs of children and a further charge of possessing indecent photographs involving children.
Accused is ‘taking steps to confront his offending behaviour’
Defence agent Stuart Beveridge told the court that his client had already started working to deal with his issues.
He said: “He is already seeing a psychologist and is taking steps to confront his offending behaviour.”
Mr Beveridge added that Anderson was also willing to take part in the Moving Forward, Making Changes programme, which is designed to provide treatment for people who commit sexual offences.
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin told Anderson that due to his age and the fact that he has no previous convictions she could deal with sentencing without imposing a prison sentence.
As an alternative to a custodial sentence, Sheriff McLaughlin sentenced Anderson, of Backhill of Little Gight, to a community payback order with supervision for three years and ordered him to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.
She also made him subject to the sex offender’s register for three years.
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