Child abuse investigation unit found indecent images on man's phone during Wester Ross raid, Highland court told

Officers from the National Child Abuse Investgation unit raided a Wester Ross house and found indecent images of children on a 21-year-old man's phone.

Inverness Sheriff Court was told that Jake Driver, now of Union Street, Inverness, who admitted downloading 37 photographs of girls aged between three and 12 years old, had analogous previous convictions.

He also pleaded guilty to breaching a special bail condition that he was not to be in the company of any child under the age of 17 without an adult present.

Fiscal depute Robert Weir told Sheriff Sara Matheson that a house in MacInnes Place, Ratagan, Glenshiel had been searched on November 21, 2022 and the inaccessible images were discovered on his device.

The court heard that Driver later reported himself to police of being in the company of a 16-year-old in a house in Peffery Road, Dingwall on April 19, 2023.

Defence solicitor advocate Clare Russell asked the sheriff to defer sentence for a background report.

She said: "He was of the erroneous belief that the individual was 17."

She added that since the commission of the latest offence, he had begun a rehabilitation programme for sex offenders.

Driver will return for sentencing on November 14. His bail was continued.

He was immediately placed on the Sex Offender's Register.