A paedophile student caught with more than 30 hours of child abuse videos has been ordered to perform unpaid work.
Lushuai Maxwell’s vile stash was uncovered on hard drives following a raid on his home in Dundee.
The city’s sheriff court heard how Maxwell was “embarrassed” by media coverage of his previous court appearance and told social workers that he is not sexually attracted to children.
Prosecutor Rachel Wallace detailed how officers obtained a search warrant for his address in the West End after receiving intelligence about the presence of indecent images.
The fiscal depute said: “A full examination was carried out and 146 videos were recovered from the two hard drives.
“There were 114 Category A videos, 26 Category B and four Category C.
“These were accessible to the accused and had a total run time of 30 hours and 71 minutes.
“They showed predominantly girls and in some instances, boys aged between four and 14 years of age.”
A ‘fairly depressing tale’
Maxwell pled guilty to possessing indecent images at his home on River Crescent between July 11 2022 and April 18 2023.
He was acquitted of a separate charge of possessing an image containing bestiality.
The 28-year-old returned to the dock following the preparation of a social work report.
Solicitor Larry Flynn told the court: “It’s a fairly depressing tale and a sad tale about what happened during the course of the lockdown.
“It’s not an excuse but it’s where he ended up.
“The publicity in the papers and online meant he lost his part-time job.
“He’s quite shy in nature and found that very embarrassing.”
Mr Flynn said Maxwell, a second-year student, was “hopeful” of maintaining his place at university and added that he has the support of his girlfriend.
Creating a demand for child abuse images
Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith told Maxwell: “I have read what you told the author of the report and also read that you claimed to have no predilection or fascination for pre-pubescent children.
“Each of the children shown is a victim. A victim that will no doubt suffer lifelong physical and psychological trauma.
“My understanding from experience in other areas is that they are often children no more than slaves often from the poorest parts of the world such as the Philippines and Thailand whose parents sell the children into slavery to organised criminals who make money from producing this type of material.
“You downloaded them and stored them. That creates a demand.
“It’s important you recognise this is a serious matter.”
The sheriff said he would have been considering custody were a community-based, rehabilitative alternative not available.
Maxwell was placed on a three-year community payback order where he must comply with the Moving Forward Making Changes programme.
He must also complete 180 hours of unpaid work and was made subject to the sex offenders’ register for five years.
For more local court content visit our page or join us on Facebook.
