A Boys’ Brigade leader has avoided a prison sentence after he admitted possessing hundreds of indecent images of young boys.
Mark Wilkie, who served with BBcompanies in Forfar and Monifieth,previously admitted possession of indecent material between April 30 2007 andJanuary 6 last year.
Wilkie, 47, was placed on the sex offenders register for 18 months and order to carry our 270 hours of unpaid work.
A police search in Wilkie’s home on McCulloch Drive, Forfar, last January found indecent material on a computer in his bedroom.
A total of 412 indecent photographs of boys aged 12 to 16 were recovered from four files. They comprised 406 level one images and six at level two.
The categorisation for such material ranges from one to five, with five being the most serious end of the scale.
Cyber forensics revealed the images had been downloaded between 2008 and2012, and had last been accessed in January 2014.
The court was also told that sevenindecent videos, downloaded between 2007 and 2010, were recovered. Five of those were level two material and two werecategorised at level four.
At court on Monday, advocate Gavin Anderson said: “The accused has a real and genuine willingness to engage and undertake all assistance open to him.”
Sheriff Gregor Murray said hethought there would be more benefit to the public in a community-based disposal instead of a prison sentence in Wilkie’s case.
He placed Wilkie on a probation order for 18 months with a requirement that he engage with the Tay Project, an intervention programme for people convicted of sexual offences.
The unpaid work requirement of 270 hours is reduced from 300 hours to take account of Wilkie’s guilty plea before the case went to trial.
Sheriff Murray added: “You will have no unsupervised contact with a child aged under 17 except inadvertently and without prior approval from your supervising officer.”
Wilkie was also placed on the sexoffenders register for the duration of his 18 months probation period.
National Boys’ Brigade chiefs previously said they were “deeply saddened” by the case and stressed Wilkie had beensuspended as soon as they were made aware of the offences.