A Fife man who tried to blame his paedophile identical brother for downloading child abuse images wailed “no” as he was jailed for the sick crime.
Robert Drummond, 37, was found guilty despite trying to pin the blame on his sibling Ryan Drummond, who was convicted of similar offences in January last year.
A trial heard 170 indecent images – including children as young as six – were recovered from computer hard drives and two mobile phones following a raid on Drummond’s Kelty home on December 4 2020.
Five of the images were of the most graphic kind – category A – while another 23 were Category B and 142 Category C.
Robert Drummond tried to blame his paedophile brother, who was picked up by police the month before.
However, the court heard images appeared to have been accessed in the six days after Ryan Drummond’s arrest – Robert Drummond said in evidence he had not spoken to his sibling since the day he was arrested.
He said he was unable to explain the anomaly.
Not a ‘victimless crime’
After two days of evidence a jury at Dunfermline Sheriff Court found him guilty of both possessing and downloading the vile material.
Drummond, of Keltyhill Avenue, appeared in the dock again for sentencing last week.
Sheriff Charles Macnair told him: “This offending is not a victimless crime.
“The victims are the children who are being horrifically abused and raped and if people did not acquire such images, there would be less likelihood of images being created.
“People like you create the demand for images.
“It’s for that reason that society takes a particularly serious view of this type of offending and I have taken into account the offending took place over a period of almost seven years”.
The sheriff said he considered the crime seemed to have been “carefully planned”, with a report pointing out Drummond had wiping software on his computer.
The trial heard there were file names indicative of offending for which no files were available.
Sheriff Macnair sentenced Drummond to two and a half years in prison and placed him on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
As the sentence was delivered, Drummond became visibly upset and could be heard crying out the word “no” as he was handcuffed and taken down from the dock.
Defence lawyer Brian Black said Drummond still fully denies the offence and maintains “it was not him”.
The court heard previously that Drummond has no previous convictions.
Brother’s offences
The brothers had blamed each other for downloading abuse images during their separate court proceedings.
At the beginning of Robert Drummond’s trial, jurors were told his brother, Ryan, was arrested on November 9 2020.
The court heard his home had been searched on October 30 2020 and a laptop was seized, which was found to contain indecent videos of children.
During a police interview Ryan Drummond denied any knowledge of material and claimed his brother, Robert had access to the laptop.
However, Ryan Drummond eventually pled guilty to downloading indecent photos of children, between June 16 and October 27 2020.
He was placed on a two-year-supervision order, with conditions that he inform officers of internet-capable devices, and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for the same period.
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