Sentence deferred on Dundee pervert caught with haul of child abuse images

Police found dozens of sick child images on a man’s laptop after raiding his parents’ house.

Gary Steedman, of Thurso Gardens, was caught with a number of images – some at the highest levels of depravity – at an address in Tayport in June 2017.

The 30-year-old, who has Asperger syndrome, came to the attention of police after information was received that indecent images of children had been accessed from a property on William Street.

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Depute fiscal Vicki Bell told Dundee Sheriff Court that police attended at the address, the home of Steedman’s parents, where it was confirmed that he was the sole user of a laptop in the property.

She said: “When police attended the accused said ‘when I was younger I had a problem with this’.

“The laptop uncovered 60 images, four of which were at category A, seven at category B and 40 at category C.

“All of these were inacessible and had been deleted by the user.”

Two category A-level videos were also found which were also no longer accessible.

Search logs on the laptop were also uncovered which showed that Steedman had been searching for indecent images of children.

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Due to Steedman’s condition, he was neither interviewed nor cautioned or charged by police immediately following the search.

Steedman was later charged and pleaded guilty on indictment to taking or permitting to be taken, indecent photographs or psuedo-photographs of children at a property on William Street, Tayport, between August 5 2015 and June 26 2017.

Not guilty pleas to two other charges were accepted by the Crown.

Defence solicitor Theo Finlay opted to reserve mitigation until social work reports had been prepared.

Sentence was deferred until August 16 by Sheriff Alastair Carmichael and Steedman was placed on the sex offenders register.