A man caught with child rape videos while staying in Dundee plans to return to Saudi Arabia after serving his community service.
Ali Albakheet was found to have 93 images and 67 videos on his phone following a police search at a property in the city’s Weavers Loan.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard 31 of the pictures and 48 videos were of the most serious category A kind.
The 53-year-old appeared in the dock for sentencing, assisted by an Arabic interpreter, after earlier pleading guilty to a charge of taking or permitting to be taken or making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children between April 13 2020 and January 11 2023.
Sheriff Susan Duff noted the category A material showed male and female children between the approximate ages of two and 15 engaging in sadism and penetrative sexual activity with adults and other children.
The sheriff told Albakheet: “You had images and videos of the most serious nature, depicting sadism and penetrative sexual activity involving children as young as two years old.
“These children are abused because there are people like you who want to watch that abuse.”
Sentencing reasons
Referring to the relevant sentencing guidelines, the sheriff pointed out the starting point for category A images is 12 months in prison.
However, she she said she has to take into account the presumption against short sentences and his lack of any previous convictions.
Sheriff Duff gave Albakheet 280 hours of unpaid work, reduced from 300 hours due to the stage of his plea.
The work must be completed before he returns to Saudi Arabia.
He will be subject to strict conduct requirements in relation to use of electronic devices.
Albakheet was also put on the sex offenders register.
Image dump
Defence lawyer Alan Gravelle said Albakheet had accompanied a relative who was studying a PhD at Dundee University and that relative has since returned to Saudi Arabia.
The solicitor said Albakheet remained in the UK for his court case but plans to return to Saudi Arabia in November.
Mr Gravelle said cybercrime enquiries indicated the indecent images were among a bundle of images which mostly included non-criminal material.
Albakheet told his social work report author the vile images were received among a variety of material via WhatsApp.
Mr Gravelle suggested this points to the conclusion of a social work report that, despite the nature of the material, his client represents low risk of reoffending.
The court heard Albakheet had been spending time volunteering in a charity shop.
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