A Fife sex offender was caught by social workers with sick child abuse images on his phone – while he was awaiting sentence for another sex crime.
James Weight was placed on the sex offenders register again after being caught with vile images and videos.
Routine checks on the convicted offender’s phone, conducted for a social work report, resulted in child abuse images being discovered.
Weight, who once threatened to punch his sister when she called him a paedophile, was told there is a “very real risk” he will be jailed if he does not comply with his community payback order.
Abuse material uncovered
The nature of Weight’s original sex crime was not detailed in his latest case, at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.
Social workers assessing sentencing options discovered his illicit stash when he provided his mobile phone for checking.
The phone was seized and sent for full forensic examination, where 12 indecent images and 12 videos – including some in category A – were discovered.
They showed boys and girls aged five to 14, engaging in sexual activity.
Weight, of Melville Gardens in Burntisland, admitted that on May 6 2023 at his home he downloaded indecent images of children.
He returned to the dock to be sentenced wearing a hoodie which read “Stuck between IDK (I don’t know), IDC (I don’t care) and IDGAF (I don’t give a f***).
The 24-year-old’s solicitor Gino Gambale said: “I can’t hide from the fact that there is a previous conviction from 2023 for a sexual offence.
“He is someone who could benefit from a community payback order with supervision.
“There’s a significant period left on his current order.
“He’s a full-time carer for his mother.
“He has been out of trouble and he has been engaging.”
‘Very real risk’ of jail if sentence breached
Sheriff Robert More ordered Weight to complete 120 hours of unpaid work as an alternative to custody and instructed him to complete the Moving Forward To Change programme.
The sheriff placed Weight under supervision and on the sex offenders register for two years.
He said: “It’s not an unusual case because the court deals with this sort of thing all the time.
“It seems to have been committed at a time you were awaiting sentence for something entirely analogous.
“You have not committed any analogous crimes or offences after you were placed on the order, so the order is working.
“With that said, having regard to the nature of the images you accessed, there does require to be a punitive aspect.
“If you breach this order, you would be at very real risk of being sent to prison.”
Paedophile rant
In April last year, Weight was sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid work at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for threatening his sister after she called him a “paedophile” during a phone call.
Weight threatened to punch his sister’s “lights out” then went to his sibling’s house in Aberdour, and banged and kicked her door while demanding entry on February 23, 2024.
At a hearing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, he admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
Prosecutor Amy Robertson told the court the pair were “joking around” on the phone but he became angry at the slur and threatened “I could come down there and punch your lights out”.
She contacted police but Weight arrived first, hammering her door so hard large cracks formed around the lock.
When police got there, Weight was still shouting threats and refused to stop.
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