A Perthshire paedophile caught downloading child abuse files on the morning of a police raid has admitted breaching a court-imposed computer ban.
Engineer Rodney Rice’s rural Carse of Gowrie cottage was swooped upon by police, who found he had last downloaded vile files just half an hour earlier.
After appearing in court, Rice was released on bail with special conditions to allow police to monitor him.
On being granted bail on October 2 2020, the now 50-year-old accepted he would not have or use any computers or mobile devices without disclosing them to police.
However, officers found on May 19 the following year, he was in possession of an undeclared computer tower at his home at Kirkton Farm Cottage in Abernyte.
He returned to Perth Sheriff Court on Monday to admit the breach of bail.
Sheriff John MacRitchie told him: “It’s clearly a serious matter.”
The sheriff released him on bail again and ordered a social work report and restriction of liberty order assessment.
Rice will be sentenced on November 9.
Initial raid
Police had received a tip-off Rice was accessing illicit material before obtaining a warrant in 2020.
Perth Sheriff Court previously heard he was raided 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.
Depute fiscal Michael Sweeney told the court a 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.”
All files had been downloaded using peer-to-peer software, the court was told.
Register and bans
Married Rice, who was working as an engineer for Virgin, admitted having indecent photos of youngsters at his Abernyte home between April 13 and August 19, 2020.
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.
Rice was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
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.”
