Inverness man had dozens indecent images of young girls
A 34-year-old Inverness man who lived "an isolated existence" downloaded and viewed photographs and videos of an indecent nature involving children has had severe restrictions placed on his use of the internet and enabled devices.
Philip Bruce, of Kenneth Place, was appearing for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court after sentence had previously been deferred for a background report and a re-education and rehabilitation programme assessment.
Sheriff Gary Aitken had been told that Bruce's home had been raided by police who seized his mobile phone on which they found 30 indecent images of young girls.
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The court heard that on the device were 30 inaccessible images, seven in the most serious category A of depravity; 14 in category B and 19 in Category C.
Fiscal depute Alison Young told Sheriff Aitken that one inaccessible category B video was also found with a run-time of 99 seconds.
All the material involved girls aged between seven and 13 years old, she added.
Bruce admitted downloading everything between March 27, 2023 and June 26, 2023.
His lawyer Samantha Morrison said: "In the report he states how disgusted he is with himself and he has no internet-enabled devices now. He lives a fairly isolated existence and he was reckless. But he accepts his actions were deliberate and he realises the impact it has on the victims by his continued viewing of the images.”
Sheriff Aitken sentenced Bruce to 100 hours of unpaid community work and placed him under three years of social work supervision and on the sex offenders’ register for the same period. Any device he owns must be approved and available for monitoring and inspection, he cannot use encryption software, disguise his identity or delete his search history.
He must also participate in the programme called Moving Forward to Change.
The sheriff added: "The offence is extremely serious and I trust that you now appreciate the damage that is done to children's lives."
