A 28-year-old Easter Ross man who downloaded and distributed indecent images of children was jailed for 33 months at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday.
Barry Hewitt, of Old Mill Road, Milton, appeared before Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood last month and admitted both offences which took place at his home between December 2014 and April 2015.
Defence agent Neil Wilson told the Sheriff that his client had taken some time to come to terms with what he had done, hence the length of time it took for him to plead guilty.
Sheriff Fleetwood told Hewitt that his indecision would be reflected in the sentence, which had been deferred last month for a background report.
At the earlier hearing, fiscal depute Michelle Molley told the court that North Wales Police received intelligence that Hewitt had communicated indecently with another.
“A search warrant was obtained for his house. They recovered a desktop tower which was subsequently analysed.
“Recovered were 4,888 indecent images of children and 200 videos.”
Ms Molley said the majority were at the lowest end of depravity but 270 images and 91 videos were at the highest.
She added that he had distributed them by using a “dropbox.”
A spokesman for NSPCC Scotland said: “We welcome the actions of the police and justice system in bringing this case to court and hope today’s sentence sends a strong message that downloading and distributing images of this sickening nature will not be tolerated.
“Hewitt stored and shared a horrific number of depraved pictures and videos – behind every one of these was a real child or young person who will need considerable support to recover from the crimes inflicted on them.
“It is vital that individuals like Hewitt who are responsible for downloading and distributing these images are investigated and brought to court to account for their crimes.”
