A Dundee paedophile spent part of his Christmas Day downloading obscene images of children as young as four, a court has heard.
John Swanson was caught with an illicit stash of more than 400 child abuse photos and videos.
Police raided the 51-year-old’s home in Craigmore Street after a tip-off about illegal downloads.
Detectives seized a laptop and mobile phone from the house which single Swanson shares with his mum.
Swanson later complained to officers that the videos “kept coming in”.
“I tried to stop it,” he said. “I was fed up.”
Morning raid
Swanson, who is profoundly deaf and without speech, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted possession of the child abuse files at his home between January 29, 2018 and March 7 the following year.
During the same period he took or permitted indecent images of children to be taken.
He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and will be sentenced next month.
Fiscal depute Joanne Ritchie said: “Confidential information was received by Police Scotland indicating that indecent images of children was held on devices within the accused’s address.”
She said officers armed with a search warrant descended on the property just before 8am on March 7, 2019.
“Entry was granted by the accused,” said Ms Ritchie. “His mother was also at the property.
“They were both advised of the reasons for the police officers’ attendance.”
A Lenovo laptop was seized from a desk in Swanson’s bedroom.
And a Nokia mobile phone was found in a jacket pocket.
Ms Ritchie said Swanson’s mother confirmed to police she had never used the devices.
Police interview
The computer and phone were passed to a member of the cyber crimes unit who was able to confirm they contained indecent images.
Swanson was arrested and interviewed using a sign language interpreter.
Asked if he had watched a specific video file, he told police: “I switched it off as soon as it started.”
When questioned about images on his phone, Swanson said: “I don’t know anything about them. I don’t know if there has been a mistake.”
He added: “Yes, a lot of things being said. I tried to stop it.
“The videos kept coming in. I was fed up.”
Children as young as four
Ms Ritchie said 220 still images were found on the Nokia.
Of those, four were at the highest level of the court’s obscenity scale.
They featured explicit sexual activity between male children as young as four.
Most of the images were category C, with 11 at level B.
A further 62 videos were found, with a collective time of nearly two hours.
Fourteen of these were at category A, and 39 at B.
They featured boys aged between 10 and 15.
The fiscal depute said that creation dates for some of the files were marked between December 23 and 25, 2018.
The court heard another 58 images of children were found on the laptop.
“None of these were accessible without the use of specialist tools,” said Ms Ritchie.
Almost half of the 62 videos found on the computer were at category A.
“The internet history of both devices were also checked,” Ms Ritchie told the court.
“It showed that the accused had been actively searching for pornographic material of young males on both devices.”
Sheriff William Wood told Swanson: “Because of the nature of these charges I am unable to deal with them today.”
Sentence was deferred for background reports until June 29.
Swanson was released on bail.
