Treatment order for Highland man who admitted being in possession of more than 1000 indecent images of girls
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A sheriff at a Highland court has ordered a man to attend a treatment programme for sex offenders.
Darren Leslie (32) previously admitted possession of more than 1000 indecent images on a hard-drive and laptop at his address in Harbour Court, Inverness in July 2018.
Depute fiscal Robert Weir told Inverness Sheriff Court that 792 images and 28 videos were found on a hard-drive and 276 images on a laptop after a warrant was executed on January 8 this year.
“The photographs and videos show predominantly female children aged from infants to approximately 12 years old,” he said.
All of the photographs, he said, were accessible to the ordinary user of the hard-drive but the images on the laptop were recovered by cybercrime experts from inaccessible drive space and would not have been visible to the ordinary user.
At court solicitor advocate Shahid Latif argued that an alternative to custody was available for his client, a first offender.
He said that the offending had occurred on a single day and none of the images had been shared with anyone else.
He also said background reports indicated Leslie had an understanding of his behaviour and had not sought to minimise his culpability.
He hoped a treatment programme for sex offenders would help Leslie with his mental health difficulties.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank told Leslie he had committed a serious offence but that, on balance, he agreed there was an alternative to custody that he could impose.
He placed Leslie under supervision for three years and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
He also placed him on the Sex Offenders' Register for three years and ordered him to attend a programme for sex offenders.
