Son caught with child porn thanks to mum, Inverness Sheriff Court hears
A 31-YEAR-OLD Inverness man downloaded child porn while he was on bail awaiting sentence on a similar offence.
But Inverness Sheriff Court was told that Nicholas Ferguson’s mother reported her son to police after he got an internet-enabled mobile phone in contravention of a court order.
Police raided the Inverness home of Nicholas Ferguson and took possession of it for analysis to prove he was in breach of his bail.
It was later established that it was internet-enabled and there were 39 indecent still images and three videos on it.
At the time the bail order was imposed in April 2019, Ferguson had already been charged with a number of offences including downloading, possessing and distributing indecent images of children.
He admitted the charges in December 2020 and was jailed for 28 months in January 2021.
The court had been told earlier this year that Ferguson had twice defied bail conditions and continued to access and download obscene images while waiting to be dealt with.
Defence solicitor Clare Russell told the court that the new charges of possessing indecent images and breaching bail, should have been incorporated with the others for which he had already been jailed.
The images had been created between June 8, 2019 and June 10, 2019.
She added that since it was committed before her client was sentenced earlier this year, he should be treated as a first offender.
Ferguson, formerly of St Ninian’s Drive, admitted breach of bail and possessing indecent images, was again placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years and jailed for 12 months by Sheriff Sara Matheson.
The sheriff said: “At a time when you were on bail due to downloading child porn, you purchased a device so you could download more, some of it being in the highest category.
“Only a custodial sentence is appropriate but I will make it concurrent with your present sentence.”
