A former marketing executive caught with hundreds of sick child images has been spared a prison sentence.
First offender Paul Milne was found with the vile hoard when police turned up to raid his then-home on Glenclova Terrace following a tip-off.
More than 560 indecent images – some at the highest levels of depravity – were uncovered on a laptop and a computer.
Milne, 32, was placed on a community payback order after previously pleading guilty at Dundee Sheriff Court to possessing and downloading the images. The court had heard how a total of 567 indecent images were found and featured girls as young as eight.
Prosecutor Lora Apostolova said: “Following intelligence, police searched the locus which led to the seizure of two computers – one laptop and the other was a personal computer. Examination of one device, the laptop, found 244 images: 19 in category A, eight in category B and 217 in category C.
“Examination of the other device found 323 images: Eight in category A, 38 in category B and 277 in category C. The girls in these images were between eight and 15 years old. The accused was taken into custody and made no comment. Upon caution and charge he made no reply.”
Milne, now of Elmbank Street, Glasgow, committed the offences between February 2018 and November 2019 at his former home address.
He returned to the dock following the preparation of reports, with defence solicitor John Boyle conceding that there was a degree of “minimisation” from Milne.
Mr Boyle confirmed Milne had lost his job as a marketing executive for magazines and was now working in a call centre.
The solicitor said: “He has not offended since the commission of this offence. He has obtained work in a call centre and I don’t foresee any difficulties in him completing unpaid work.”
As a direct alternative to custody, Sheriff Alastair Carmichael sentenced Milne to 18 months supervision and 150 hours of unpaid work. He was placed on the sex offenders register for the same period as his supervision.
Sheriff Carmichael said: “Having read the terms of the report here, it’s a positive report, it does recommend that you are suitable for unpaid work and supervision due to the relatively low number of category A and B images.
“I think in these circumstances I can go down a non-custodial line.”
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