April 2014
Pervert caught with shocking 19-minute clip of a young child being violently abused and 8,000 other obscene images
A man whose home overlooks a north-east village play park has been caught with a huge stash of child abuse images.
Almost 8,000 obscene images and videos were uncovered when police raided Robert Strachan’s home at Boddam, near Peterhead.
Among the haul was a shocking 19-minute clip of a young child being violently abused against his will.
Strachan, 35, appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court and admitted possession of the computer files, some of which date back to January 2006.
He was given an extended five-year jail sentence, meaning he must serve 20 months in prison and will be released on licence for the remaining 40 months.
Fiscal depute David Bernard told the court that officers descended on Strachan’s home after receiving a tip-off. They arrived just after 6pm on Sunday, January 27, last year and seized a computer tower and two laptops.
Mr Bernard said the equipment was analysed and a total of 7,654 obscene pictures and 120 videos were found. Almost 400 photos and 47 videos were classed at the higher end of the court’s indecency scale, featuring sex between children and adults and sadism.
When interviewed, Strachan told police he had received images of children from other people online. He said he deleted the files after opening them.
The court heard graphic details of what the images depicted. Some featured children as young as one, and most of the images were of boys. Some were stored in a folder marked “Roy Chubby Brown”, the court was told.
Defence agent Sam Milligan said Strachan, of 21 Claymore Crescent, had no criminal record and had been a “net contributor to society”.
He said more than 60% of the videos and 90% of the pictures were at the lower levels, grades one to three, of the indecency scale used by the courts.
Sheriff Alison Stirling told Strachan: “You have pleaded guilty to a very serious offence. I have viewed a selection of these videos and images at all levels of the scale. I watched a 19 minute video which was at level five, which showed the violent treatment of a child who clearly wasn’t a willing participant.
“In my view, a community disposal is unrealistic. Custody is the only appropriate sentence.”
Strachan was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years. He showed no emotion as he was handcuffed and led out of the dock, while people in the public gallery called out “beast”.
