A man who claimed he accidentally accessed indecent images despite a search history to the contrary has been told he “destroyed” children’s lives for “entertainment”.
Adam Betteridge claimed he clicked a link sent to his mobile by accident, but investigators also found deleted searches including terms such as “pedo”, “youngest” and “hairless”.
His solicitor told the court Betteridge had been going through a “dark” time with poor mental health when the offence occurred.
But, when he appeared for sentencing in Inverness, Sheriff Gary Aitken appeared to have little sympathy for the paedophile’s mental health struggles.
Sheriff Aitken told him: “No matter how bad you think your mental health was […] I can assure you that the children you watched being brutalised would be significantly more affected than you ever were, and their lives destroyed for your entertainment.”
A previous hearing had heard how the 32-year-old’s then home in South Guildry Street, Elgin, was searched by police and his phone seized.
Search discovered vile video
It was examined and had 14 of the most serious types of child abuse
images at Category A as well as one 10 second video.
Depute fiscal Pauline Gair told Sheriff Sara Matheson that experts also found three still images in Category B and two in category C.
All of the images were inaccessible and had been downloaded between September 29 2019 and September 8, 2022 – the day before Betteridge’s home was searched.
Also found were deleted search histories which had saved words like “pedophile, young, younger, youngest, pedo and hairless”, Mrs Gair added.
At the sentencing hearing yesterday, Betteridge’s defence agent told the court his client had been suffering from mental health difficulties and going through a particularly “dark” time at the time of the offence.
‘Low risk’ offender watched children being ‘brutalised’
He stressed the low number of images and highlighted that Betteridge had been assessed as low risk going forward.
Sheriff Aitken told Betteridge, of Main Street, Elgin, his crime was “far from trivial” and should not be considered victimless.
He placed the first offender on a Community Payback Order with three years of social work supervision and a requirement that he complete the Moray sex offenders programme.
He also required Betteridge to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work in the community and placed him on the sex offenders register for three years.