An Angus pervert who admitted downloading hundreds of indecent images of children told police when they raided his home he was a paedophile hunter rather than a predator.
Fergus Barclay spent ten months gathering vile material and was still an S6 pupil at Montrose Academy when officers executed an early morning raid at his former family home in Brechin.
When Barclay appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court, he admitted taking or making the indecent files between June 2020 and April 2021.
Raided
The court heard police had received “confidential” intelligence filth had been accessed from his home.
Officers arrived at around 8.30am on April 9 2021 and analysed the now-20-year-old’s Samsung Galaxy S10.
The device contained 329 accessible still images of child abuse.
43 of those images were categorised as the most graphic, with 59 identified as Category B and 227 as Category C.
Evidence of a further 1,367 inaccessible images and 28 inaccessible videos was also uncovered.
Creation dates on the sick files showed the oldest had been in existence since June 1 2020.
The most recent had been created less than a week before police seized the device.
When he was questioned by police, Barclay said: “On YouTube I was acting like a predator hunter trying to catch people out by pretending to be a younger age.”
Fiscal depute Lynne Mannion sought forfeiture of Barclay’s mobile phone.
Consideration of this was continued until later this month.
Must return for sentence
The court heard Barclay, who now lives at Charleston Place in Montrose, has no previous convictions.
He pled not guilty to possessing “extreme porn” involving a female and a horse.
This was accepted by the Crown.
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael deferred sentence and continued Barclay’s bail until he returns to the dock on March 29 after reports have been prepared.
He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for a period to be determined at the next hearing.
As he left court, shamed Barclay covered his face with a hood, facemask, sunglasses and paperwork.
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