An Angus man has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after admitting lewd and libidinous behaviour towards a girl under 16.
Christopher Johnston will also remain on licence for three years and on the sex offenders register for a decade after admitting possession of 348 inappropriate images and video files of children at an address in Forfar.
The town’s sheriff court heard Sheriff Kevin Veal describe former accountancy bookkeeper Johnston’s case as a “sudden and spectacularly public fall from grace.”
The 38-year-old father of five admitted downloading pseudo images between January 2005 and July last year, contrary to section 52 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.
Of these, only two images were of the most severe level. However, nine of the 14 videos were at the top level of seriousness.
Defence agent Michael Boyd said Johnston was looking after the child when the offence of lewd and libidinous behaviour occurred.
“He has freely admitted the breach of trust and he had confirmed his attraction to children of this particular age,” said Mr Boyd.
“We have an individual who has had potential to carry out further offences, but he hasn’t done so, as he knew that would be wrong.”
Mr Boyd added his client had sought help through B4U-ACT, a website set up to help those who feel attracted to minors.
However, Sheriff Veal said Johnston’s age at the time of the offences, from 30 to 37 years old, led him to consider the lewd activity as “very serious.”
He imposed several conditions after Johnston’s release, including not approaching the female, or accessing the internet.