A 57-year-old man caught viewing child abuse images when police raided his home has sentenced to three years’ probation at Dundee Sheriff Court.
John Pacione, of Killin Avenue, had previously admitted possessing the indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children at his home between December 10 and January 11.
The court had previously been told he started viewing the images because he was bored. The court had also heard Pacione was found with the images on the screen of his computer when police arrived with a search warrant in January.
He had previously claimed he had not gone looking for the pictures but that pop-ups had appeared on his screen, and went on to claim that he got no sexual gratification from them.
A total of 125 images were discovered.
Defence agent Paul Parker Smith said his client had accepted his guilt at an early stage in proceedings but there continued to be disagreement with the Crown over the severity of one of the images.
Mr Parker Smith also said he accepted that his client told social workers that an unknown Chinese man who had access to his computer had in fact downloaded the pictures.
”My client accepted his guilt at a fairly early stage in proceedings,” Mr Parker Smith said. ”When police attended the computer was on and was displaying certain images and Mr Pacione accepted his guilt at an early stage.”
The agent said his client was a first offender and had been forced to face up to things but that there had been difficulties with the categorisation of the images.
Sheriff Elizabeth Munro said the ”best thing” she could come up with was a three-year probation order with a number of conditions.
Pacione will be required to attend the Tay Project for Sex Offenders, and has been told he must not have direct or indirect contact with children under the age of 17.
He was also told he must submit to two inspections of electrical equipment he owns and must complete 100 hours of unpaid work in the community.
He will also be placed on the sex offenders register for the duration of his probation order.