A sex offender who amassed almost 5,000 indecent images of children blamed marital problems for his deviancy.
During sessions with social workers and psychiatrists, “shy” Stuart Fraser claimed difficulties with his partner forced him to seek solace in adult pornography.
As he trawled through internet sites, the 50-year-old Perth man met other voyeurs on chat rooms and his activities soon took a sinister turn.
His new online “friends” introduced him to collections of indecent images of children and soon he was also sharing his discoveries.
Defending Fraser, solicitor Linda Clark told Perth Sheriff Court: “He believes that if the problems in his relationship had been dealt with by speaking to his partner or a counsellor, he would not have been looking at the website and that would not have had the resulting knock-on effect.”
Sheriff Alistair Brown expressed some concerns that the accused believed he could “just switch off this interest”.
The court had earlier heard how police had visited Fraser’s Princes Street home after receiving a tip-off. After being told how many images and videos were uncovered on his computer, he tried to claim that some were duplicates.
In total, 2,675 still images were found 1,707 at level one which is the least serious category, 921 at level four and 47 at level five, which covers sadism and bestiality.
Police also discovered 2,280 videos at levels four and five, the higher end of the definitive scale.
Examination of Fraser’s chat logs revealed that he had been responsible for distributing 1,904 images of children aged between four and 14 years engaged in acts at level five on the scale.
Fraser admitted that on November 14 2011 at his home address or elsewhere unknown, he was in possession of indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children.
He also admitted that between June 29 2007 and December 6 2007 he distributed or showed indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children. He was jailed for two and a half years and placed on the sex offenders register.