A man who claimed he was addicted to child pornography has been jailed for 27 months for sharing his sickening images.
Martin Nicolson was told that Sheriff Margaret Neilson said she had no option but to jail him because he had distributed the images.
Last month, he admitted downloading and distributing child pornography between October 2015 and February 2015,
The 24-year-old of 97 Altan Place, Culloden, had videos and images of boys as young as five being sexually abused on his computers when he was living in Staffin on Skye.
Police had been tipped off by the National Online Child Abuse Prevention Team that indecent images had been accessed.
Fiscal Roderick Urquhart told the court that police obtained a warrant and seized computer equipment on March 26 last year.
Mr Urquhart added; “He admitted then that there may be indecent images. Initially a few videos and images were found and he told officers he did not know who had sent them to him. He was interviewed by police and he said he had become depressed and physically sick viewing them and felt it was an addiction.
“He further stated that he was willing to seek any professional assistance, medical or otherwise, to cease the addiction.”
“Subsequent examination of two computers revealed 63 videos and two dozen still images, some mostly involved young boys as young as nine and others were of young girls as young as five engaged in sexual activity.”
Mr Urquhart said that the communication software, Skype, had been used to send and receive the material.
“There was also evidence of him trading the images and that he had distributed a total of 13 videos.” Mr Urquhart went on.
An analysis of both laptops revealed 41 videos and 12 indecent images.
Nicolson’s solicitor Hamish Melrose said Nicolson was a first offender and references were available from family and a family friend which painted an entirely different picture of the person before the court.
“They were stunned on hearing what has been happening. He comes from a good family and a supportive community in the north of Skye.”
Sheriff Neilson also placed Nicolson on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
