A vile Arbroath paedophile was caught with more than 900 child abuse files on his phone when he was probed for breaching online restrictions days after his release from jail.
Christopher Sloan will be jailed again after police probing an illicit online chat uncovered the stash of recently downloaded filth.
The previously-jailed pervert, who uses cannabis daily, spent only 10 days at liberty before being locked up again for the breach and the sick haul of photos and videos.
Sloan is also awaiting sentence for the assault and robbery of a teenage boy, carried out in woods two weeks before he was jailed.
Short-lived release
Sloan was released from prison on November 15 last year after being sentenced to four months behind bars for flouting strict rules about his internet use, imposed after being caught with more than 14 hours of sick abuse material.
He received the shorter sentence for sending Snapchat messages in September while being prohibited from deleting messages – something the app does automatically.
The mother of the person he had been messaging noticed that on November 16, Sloan had sent more messages via the app. She contacted police.
Officers arrested Sloan on November 25 and seized his phone for inspection.
On the device, they found 985 sick photographs of child abuse, including material considered the most graphic kind.
The girls depicted were aged from two to 15 and included images of children being abused by adults and children who were bound.
30 videos were discovered with a runtime of almost six hours.
Will be jailed
The 31-year-old has been on remand at HMP Perth since appearing in court at a private hearing the day after being arrested.
At Dundee Sheriff Court, Sloan admitted breaching his five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and taking or making indecent images of children during his 10 days post-release.
Solicitor Billy Rennie said: “The difficulty that presents for him is that social work involvement before hasn’t really worked.
“There have been breaches before. He’s found himself in a significantly difficult place.”
Mr Rennie said Sloan only began offending after his mother’s death.
“The cannabis use became prevalent after that,” he added.
Sheriff Gregor Murray deferred sentencing until April and placed Sloan on the sex offenders register again.
He said: “There will be a custodial disposal in this case.
“The question in my mind is whether I should make a supervised release order or whether or not I should consider making an extended sentence in your case.”
Attack on teen
During his ten days at liberty, Sloan was on bail in connection with an assault and robbery incident targeting a 16-year-old boy in woods in Arbroath.
Three days before admitting these latest offences, Sloan appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court to plead guilty to attacking the teenager too.
Sloan, ordinarily of Strathairlie Avenue in Arbroath, admitted that he acted with others during the attack on August 25 last year at a wooded area near McGregors Walk in his hometown, known as The Dammy.
There, he followed the boy, pushed him to the ground, placed his hands around the boy’s throat and restricted his breathing.
Sloan then struck the boy on the head and robbed him of his mobile phone.
His victim – who was left injured – is too young to be identified publicly.
He is due to be sentenced for this matter this month.
Previous sick cache
In 2022, Sloan pled guilty to possessing sick child abuse material six months after police raided his home.
Officers uncovered hundreds of accessible images of some of the most depraved types of child sexual abuse, as well as multiple hours of accessible film.
Police had gained intelligence ahead of the raid that one category A and one category B child abuse image was uploaded online using an email address connected with Sloan’s Facebook account.
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