Nairn paedophile had images and videos of children as young as five

A man from Nairn who possessed and distributed indecent photos of children has been jailed for 18 months.

Frances Ward (51) of the town’s Gordon Street was found guilty at Inverness Sheriff Court and sentenced on Thursday, April 3.

Ward was snared by an undercover police officer after sharing indecent images of children with the decoy seeking people with an interest in the obscene material.

The information was passed on to other colleagues and a search was carried out on 57-year-old Francis Ward's home in Gordon Street on March 14 last year.

Inverness Sheriff Court heard previously that two of the devices were seized and on analysis, a total of 1251 accessible and inaccessible photographs and videos were found, 313 of them were in the most serious category of obscenity.

Evidence was also found of the accused sending and receiving images through social media messenger platforms, plus 37,105 messages sent through 1352 chat threads.

These involved videos of children ranging from five to 16 years old involved in penetrative activity with adult males. Creation dates were between September 16, 2023 and March 13, 2024.