March 2007
Security tightens after library child abuse images case
SECURITY has been tightened on public-access computers across the Borders after a man was jailed for downloading child abuse images at Galashiels Public Library.
But a senior councillor is still worried that even toughened procedures will not be enough to prevent sex-surfers logging on to paedophile and hard-core sites.
Andrew Robertson, 25, of Gala Park in Galashiels was jailed for six months this week and put on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.
He’d been convicted by a jury of downloading 185 indecent photographs of children at the town’s library between December 2003 and January last year.
In August 2005, Richard Wartnaby from Earlston was jailed for two years after downloading more than 1,000 child porn images at the same library and at the public library at Earlston High School between March 2004 and April 8 the following year. He was put on the sex-shame register for five years.
SBC administers 90 free-access personal computers, which over the past 12 months attracted 84,000 bookings, clocking up 70,000 hours of use.
SBC’s cultural services manager Ian Brown commented: “Following the Earlston case we discussed procedures quite thoroughly with the police and Child Protection Agency.
“We further tightened up on procedures and our ability to monitor if internet users have been accessing illegal sites. We take the unacceptable or illegal use of internet access very seriously.”
And he denied security had been lax in Roberston’s case.
He told us: “We were not lax. We would have been lax if it had slipped through. And we are tightening up. New software will be installed with an international list of illegal sites which will be updated on a daily basis.
“It will block access and give us an indication that someone is trying to enter. It identifies the computer and the time of the attempt.”
And because every person that logs onto a public-access computer has to register with their name and address, it means they should be quickly traced once police have been informed.
But the councillor in charge of libraries is still worried. Val Robson of Newcastleton told The Southern: “This is not the first time it has happened and I wonder if we are doing everything that we can – or is it the case that we can never be 100 per cent sure it won’t happen unless we deny everyone the valuable service of these computers.
“We need to look at what the national and international scene is and compare what is happening in the Borders.
“I know about computers and I know from reading how easy it is to access these sites. There is always something new, and that must equally apply on the nasties front.
“We are doing our best and are very aware of what might and can happen. But I want to be told how that compares with what is being done elsewhere.
“But you cannot make fortresses out of places like libraries and schools. If you do that, then you are simply giving in to these kind of people.”
