Net ban for ex-soldier who had 10,000 child porn images

Published on Thursday 15 July 2010 16:09

A FORMER soldier caught with more than 10,000 images of child pornography has become the first person in the UK to be banned from owning a Blackberry mobile phone.

At Perth Sheriff Court yesterday, Neil Robertson, 29, was banned from owning the specific model of phone in an attempt to prevent him gaining access to the internet.

Robertson, whose haul of images featured children as young as five being sexually abused, was banned from having any access to the internet.

He was also banned from living in a house with anyone under the age of 17, having any unsupervised contact with anyone under 17, and working on a voluntary or paid basis with anyone under 17.

The former soldier, who served recently in Iraq, was also forbidden from having any contact with known sex offenders and was placed on the sex offenders' register for three years.

Sheriff Donald Ferguson told Robertson that by downloading 10,600 still images he had effectively made more than 10,000 children the victim of his crime.

Sheriff Ferguson said: "On any view, this is an appalling crime. Every image you have is an image of a victim and that is the most important thing you have got to understand.

"Taking account of the vast number of images alone, it would be appropriate to send you to prison.

"But it can also be said that the huge number of images emphasises the need for you to get help.

"On balance, it is in the public interest to place you on probation for a lengthy period in order to address those issues."

Robertson was placed on probation for three years, ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work, and attend the Tay Project for sex offenders.

Sheriff Ferguson said: "There are a number of conditions to the probation. I can assure you, it is going to require a considerable amount of commitment from you.

"You must not have access to the internet, and that includes by a computer, a telephone, a Blackberry or by any other means."

Robertson claimed that he had acted out of "curiosity" initially, but confessed that he could not stop downloading more and more child porn images and more than seven hours of video clips.

The vast majority of the images, which showed children aged between five and 16, were at the lower end of the scale of abuse, but some were at the most horrific mark, level five.

The court was told that police had received information about what Robertson had been downloading from the internet and went round to raid his parents' home.

Fiscal depute Charmaine Cole said: "In November 2009, Tayside Police received intelligence that an IP address of the accused's father may have child pornography images.

"A search warrant was obtained for the house and a computer was recovered.

"Both parents gave statements to say the laptop was used by the accused.

"The accused was detained and he fully admitted that he had indecent images on his computer. They found 10,600 images of children and 50 video clips.

"The age range of the children was from five to 16 years. The combined running time of the video clips was seven hours and 11 minutes.

"He stated that he knew what he was doing was wrong but said that he could not stop it, nor could he explain why he did it, apart from curiosity."

Robertson, now of Dunkeld Road, Perth, admitted possessing indecent images of children at a property in West Mains Avenue in Perth between 1 June and 3 December, 2009.

Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said Robertson had served in the army for a decade between 1999 and 2009. He left the service for family reasons, but did so with an exemplary record.