A Virgin Media engineer downloaded an obscene photo of children just minutes before police raided his home.
Officers swooped on Rodney Rice’s remote Perthshire cottage after receiving a tip-off that he was accessing illicit material.
Perth Sheriff Court heard the search warrant was executed at 7.45am on August 19,.
A computer seized from the property showed an explicit image of children had been downloaded between 7.10am and 7.18am that morning.
Playpark ban
Married Rice, 49, admitted having indecent photos of youngsters at his Abernyte home between April 13 and August 19, 2020.
Some of the files found were listed by prosecutors at “category A“, meaning the most obscene available.
Rice also pled guilty to a charge of owning an air weapon without having the appropriate certificate.
Sheriff William Wood ordered him to complete 280 hours of unpaid work, as part of a three-year supervision order.
Strict controls were also placed on Rice’s use of computers and social media.
He has further been banned from local playparks and other places where young children are likely to be.
Sheriff Wood told him “It is clear from the evidence that it was you who was responsible for this offence.”
Morning raid
Depute fiscal Michael Sweeney told the court Police Scotland had received confidential information that indecent images of children were being accessed from computers at Rice’s Kirkton Farm Cottage home.
A White Gamemax Computer Tower was found at the property.
Rice confirmed that it belonged to him.
A hard drive was also seized.
Mr Sweeney said one indecent image and eight videos were found on the hard drive.
“In total, the video run was 26 minutes and 22 seconds,” he said.
“There were two category A, four category B and two category C videos, all inaccessible.”
In total, two category B images were found.
All files had been downloaded using peer-to-peer software, the court was told.
