Perth man’s computer contained over 11 hours of child abuse videos

A Perth man who was caught with dozens of videos of child sex abuse has been jailed.

Perth Sheriff Court heard that Lee West, of South Methven Street, had 11 hours of material.

The films, which were downloaded between March 6 and 29 last year, featured images of children as young as four and seven of the videos were level 5 the worst kind. West made the images available to others online via a file-sharing site.

West had previously admitted possessing the images as well as having the images with a view to being distributed or shown by him to others.

Depute fiscal Carol Whyte told Perth Sheriff Court that officers acting on intelligence had recovered a laptop at the 30-year-old’s address.

She said: “It was examined and they recovered 437 moving and still images depicting child abuse.

“There were video clips with a total running time of over 11 hours. They were from level two to level five. They showed girls aged from four to 17.”

Solicitor Gary Thompson said West had not deliberately distributed the files.

Sheriff Fiona Tait jailed him for 15 months and placed him on the sex offenders register for 10 years.