A Royal Mail worker has been placed on the sex offenders register after a police raid at his home uncovered indecent images of children and extreme pornography involving animals.
Postman Mark Hilliard was suspected of being in possession of indecent images by police who turned up at his home where they seized his devices, along with an air rifle and cannabis plants.
The images and video footage found on the 47-year-old’s computer involved girls estimated to be as young as six.
Videos were also found of adults having sex with animals.
During a police interview, Hilliard told officers he was interested in “nudism” and that the images of children were included with photos he had downloaded from a nudist website.
Fiscal depute Ruaridh McAlister told the court that on April 23 last year the North East Public Protection Unit of Police Scotland received intelligence that indecent images of children were being downloaded from an IP address at Hilliard’s house.
An evidential search warrant was executed on May 4 and several electronic devices capable of accessing the internet and belonging to Hilliard were seized.
Police also found a number of cannabis plants and an air rifle, for which Hilliard didn’t have a certificate.
An examination of Hilliard’s computer found a number of images involving children – including one of the most serious categories that showed a girl who was estimated to be between six and 11 years old.
“There was a file with a filename synonymous with child sexual abuse material containing the words ‘Pedo’, ‘Vicky’ and ‘The 107 Minutes Collection’, ” Mr McAlister stated.
“Within the Windows Explorer recent file list on that same drive, there were further filenames, such as ‘cute 12yo blondie taking a shower’.”
One Category A video and 18 Category C still images of child sexual abuse material were found during this examination.
The Category C images all showed the same girl, estimated to be between 11 and 16 years of age.
The examination also found 66 images and three videos of extreme pornography, including some that involved women and men having sexual intercourse with animals.
Denied knowingly downloading images
During a police interview on July 23 last year, Hilliard claimed that he had an interest in nudism and said he had downloaded “packs” of images from nudist websites.
“On reviewing the content of these image packs, he came across images that he described as ‘risky’, so he stated that he deleted those images,” Mr McAlister said.
“When asked about the Category A video, he denied knowingly downloading indecent images.”
The four cannabis plants found were at the infant stage of growth and were considered of no value at that stage.
However, if grown to maturity, each plant had the potential to realise a maximum street value of around £810.
The air rifle found at Hilliard’s property was assessed not to be in a state of working order when found by police.
Hilliard pleaded guilty to one charge of being in possession of indecent images of children and a second charge of possessing extreme pornography.
He admitted a third charge of producing a controlled drug and a final charge of possessing an air rifle without a certificate.
‘He is regretful for what he has done’
Defence agent Alex Burn told the court his client was a first offended who had “never been in any trouble in the past”.
“The position is that he does accept responsibility for the images – they are what they are and he can’t get away from that,” he said.
“He is clearly regretful for what he has done.”
Sheriff Graham Buchanan told Hilliard that he was a “mature adult with no previous convictions”.
He added: “In these circumstances, I’m prepared to deal with you in a non-custodial disposal but it is an alternative to a custodial sentence.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Buchanan sentenced Hilliard to a community payback order with supervision and ordered him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
He also placed Hilliard on the sex offenders register and ordered him to take part in a sex offenders programme.
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