Ex-voluntary worker caught with 258,000 child abuses on computer

A former voluntary worker was caught with 258,000 child abuse images on his home computer.

Alan McDonald, who had been convicted of a similar offence in 2002, was jailed for six years after police seized his computer equipment in South Lanarkshire.

The 38-year-old admitted downloading the large haul of child abuse images and was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday.

He will be monitored for two years in the community following his release and was also placed on the Sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

Police had seized computer equipment when officers searched McDonald’s home in Dalriada Crescent, Motherwell. The court was told 258,000 still images were recovered along with 758 movie clips of children suffering sexual assaults.

Some were at the worst end of the scale used to grade such material, the court heard. The indecent material had been downloaded from internet newsgroups and file-sharing sites by McDonald.

He made no comment when later quizzed about the find, but admitted once being attracted to children.

Lord Pentland told him: “It is of particular concern that you have a previous conviction at sheriff and jury level for the possession of indecent images of children and served a prison sentence for that offence.

“Even that has not served to deter you from continuing to offend in this way, indeed the present offence represents a significant escalation of your pattern of offending.” He added that each image represents “serious abuse” of children and those who view such material share some of the responsibility for that abuse “by creating and sustaining a demand”.

The judge added: “The court will impose a substantial sentence to mark the gravity of the conduct and society’s abhorrence for it.”

Defence advocate Tony Graham told the court his client “accepts that he downloaded these images, he accepts he did so after seeking that sort of material” but said he could offer no explanation why. McDonald was jailed for four months in 2002 after downloading 600 indecent images while working as a volunteer with children.

He was based at a project run by North Lanarkshire Council which involved him teaching youngsters how to use computers.

McDonald admitted having the obscene pictures on a council computer at Kirkshaws Neighbourhood House in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, over three months at the end of 2000. He put them onto a floppy disk and then transferred them to his own computer at home.