A man’s sick stash of extreme pornography involving animals was branded “foul stuff” by a sheriff who later spared him jail.
Michael Upton had claimed not to remember having almost seven hours of indecent video content mostly stored on a hard drive that had not been accessed since 2015.
After describing the disgusting material, which included “pretty stark” images, as “foul stuff”, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told Upton that “some punishment is necessary”.
The 38-year-old appeared for sentencing on Monday, having previously admitted to a single charge of possessing extreme pornography.
He has since been ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work in the community.
Six hours and 56 minutes of animal porn videos on Dufftown man’s devices
At the earlier hearing, fiscal depute Robert Weir told Inverness Sheriff Court that Upton’s home was searched by the police on August 15 last year.
A number of devices – including an external hard drive – were seized.
“The hard drive was not connected to the computer tower and had last been used on January 3 2015,” Mr Weir said, explaining: “Found within the device was a total of 17 user-accessible extreme pornography video files”.
The court heard that the videos showed troubling sexual acts involving animals.
On further examination of the confiscated devices, a total of 21 videos with a combined duration of six hours and 56 minutes were uncovered.
There were also 220 still images of extreme pornography but no indecent images of children, the court heard.
Upton was cautioned by law enforcement officers and interviewed in the presence of his solicitor and an appropriate adult.
Then he was charged with the offence, to which he later pled guilty in the dock.
Moray man Michael Upton claimed to have ‘no memory’ of the sick stash
Defence solicitor Grant Daglish told the court that his client had “no memory” of the content in question but accepted it had been in his possession.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald said there were “pretty stark images” to forget.
The sheriff added: “This all may have occurred some time ago but it is still pretty foul stuff”.
At the sentencing hearing on Monday, defence lawyer Stephen Carty represented Upton.
He highlighted the illegal media files that were discovered by the authorities had not been accessed in a long time.
Mr Carty then argued for his client that “nothing had been found on his computer system which would indicate that this was an ongoing situation”.
Sheriff MacDonald told Upton, of Newmill Road in Dufftown: “This is a serious matter. You have pled guilty to a serious offence.
“Some punishment is necessary for an offence like this.”
She imposed a community payback order on Upton, requiring him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work.
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