Alness sex offender who downloaded child abuse images learns fate
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A Ross-shire engineer who was waiting to be sentenced for downloading almost 1500 stills and videos of children between one and 15 years old being abused had been undergoing therapy.
Dawid Jankowksi of Milnafua, Alness, who admitted the offence which occurred between June 17 and June 21, 2023 narrowly escaped jail when he appeared for sentencing before Sheriff Sara Matheson.
The court had deferred sentence for a background report and as defence solicitor advocate Clare Russell asked that her client not be jailed, the Sheriff expressed her doubts.
She said: "The fundamental thing I have difficulty with is that he denies he is sexually attracted to children."
The Sheriff was also concerned that Jankowski's access to the material was mostly through chat rooms and that the victims were as young as one year old.
Ms Russell replied: "There are still treatment needs here and that can be done through supervision."
The court had been told that Jankowski was not deemed suitable for a court run rehabilitation course for sex offenders.
But Ms Russell said her client had privately engaged a psychologist "to look into and address any underlying issues."
She added that he had already completed one course and was on the waiting list for another.
"He wants to ensure this does not happen again," Ms Russell went on.
Sheriff Matheson decided against jailing Jankowksi, telling him: "Your actions have contributed to the on-going abuse of children in an horrific manner."
She said she could deal with him by way of a community payback order and 200 hours of unpaid work.
The Sheriff also placed him under social work supervision and on the Sex Offender's Register for three years.
In addition, restrictions were placed on him on internet use, possession of web enabled devices and contact with children under the age of 18.
At the earlier court, fiscal depute Alison Young told the Sheriff that police had intelligence that he was in possession of indecent images of children and obtained a search warrant for his property
They seized various devices including mobile phones and analysis discovered 18 accessible videos and three stills in the three categories of obscenity, involving girls aged between one year old and 12 years old engaging in sexual activity.
Mrs Young added that on the other phones and a laptop were 1148 inaccessible stills and 284 inaccessible videos in the same three categories involving girls aged between three and 15.
