An online retailer was jailed for a year yesterday after being caught with more than 250 hours of sickening child sexual abuse videos.
Married father-of-three Clive Price was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years after a court heard he had been secretly watching the videos for seven years.
When his home was raided by police, the web-based jewellery retailer admitted having a hoard of child abuse images, but told officers: “It’s not that serious.”
However, Perth Sheriff Court was told that a third of the videos were in the most serious category of sadomasochistic abuse of young children.
Sheriff Gillian Wade told Price: “This is an offence which has been committed over a seven-year period. You were knowingly committing an offence against real children who were being abused in a horrific way somewhere in the world.
“This was not a one-off incident. We are looking at a campaign of deliberate viewing over a very considerable period. You are a persistent offender who only recently got caught.
“It took until you were caught for you to address your offending behaviour. You have shown limited insight and were only interested in how this was going to affect you and your family.”
Solicitor Mark Harrower, defending, said: “He has hurt his wife beyond belief. His family are not speaking to him. He is a disgraced man in the community. He is deeply ashamed.”
The court heard how the 61-year-old had built up a haul of videos featuring children as young as five over a number of years and had taken copies of hundreds of videos.
He admitted downloading child abuse images from February 2 2009 to November 25 2017.
Depute fiscal John Malpass said police received intelligence which led them to seek a warrant and when they raided Price’s home they found illicit images and videos on several devices and memory sticks.
Mr Malpass said the material was stored alongside paperwork relating to the business Price ran and he freely admitted he had been viewing child abuse images.
Price, of Perth Road, Scone, told police: “I have webcam videos of young girls. It’s not that serious. My wife knows nothing about this.”
Mr Malpass said the various devices were examined by police and they found a photograph of Price himself along with numerous business documents and child abuse images.
“The material showed male and female children aged from five to 16. There were a number of category A images.
“Across all of the devices there was a total of 1,926 still images and 1,067 videos containing indecent footage of children. The videos had a combined running time of over 250 hours and 19 minutes.”
