Facebook pictures led to sex offender

A SEX offender was caught after he posted a picture of himself abusing a two-year-old girl on a social networking site.

John Huitema, 37, was reported to police after indecent images were uploaded to his Facebook page.

When officers arrived at his house in Glasgow's west end, Huitema told them he wanted to "get something off his chest" after giving them passwords for his computer.

A total of 7,269 images of children were recovered from Huitema's home.

At the High Court in Glasgow yesterday Huitema admitted possessing and taking or making indecent photographs of children between July 2008 and January 2011.

He also pled guilty to distributing or showing indecent photographs of children in January this year and to sexually assaulting a two-year-old in January.

The Dutch national was caught when police received information from the Child Exploitation and On-Line Protection Services.

They reported that the user of the Facebook profiles "Benwwantsit" and "Barrywwantit" had posted indecent images.

The court heard officers arrived at Huitema's house on 21 January and asked him to provide passwords for his computer.

Advocate depute, Tim Niven-Smith, prosecuting, said Huitema confessed to police he had downloaded indecent images of a two-year-old girl and one photograph showed him abusing her.

He showed officers a computer, two laptops and a number of CDs. Huitema was detained that evening and interviewed by police.

Mr Niven-Smith told the court: "During the course of the interview the accused stated 'I have images of younger persons on my computer'."

Judge Lady Dorrian deferred sentence until next month for reports and placed Huitema on the sex offenders register.