Court hears evidence in child porn case

THE trial of a former Aberchirder police sergeant facing alleged child pornography charges heard that 75 indecent images of children were found on three devices after police raided his home.

Neil Shand (51) is accused of possessing illicit photographs of youngsters between December, 2008 and December, 2010 and of taking photos, or permitting them to be taken, over the same period.

Shand, a father of three, denies both charges, and has lodged special defences of alibi and incrimination.

The trial, which continued last week at Banff Sheriff Court before Sheriff Edward Savage, heard evidence from Shand’s son, Connor (24), and Detective Constable Brian Moggach, a police computer analyst.

The court was told that the images, featuring children as young as five, were found on a computer, a laptop and a memory stick removed by police from Shand’s home at 28 North Street.

Connor Shand, a student and supermarket worker in Aberdeen, said in his evidence to the court that he had used a memory stick that police had found in his father’s sock drawer, while he was living with his parents.

It was analysed by DC Moggach and a colleague and found to contain a large amount of pornography catalogued into different folders.

The court heard that on the device, 32 indecent photographs of children were found in a folder named ‘YP’.

When asked by fiscal depute Karen Dow why he told police in an interview that he had not used the memory stick, Connor Shand said: "I had never dealt with police before, and I was shaken by the experience."

He also told the court that he used the family’s main computer, which was found to have 41 obscene images of children on its hard drive. He said he used it for about six months while his own PC was being repaired after it was infected with viruses.

The laptop originally belonged to Connor Shand, and he said he gave it to his father. Two indecent images of youngsters were found on the device.

He told the court that he had viewed adult pornography on computers in the home, but insisted that he had never viewed or downloaded indecent images of children.

He also said that his younger brother used the family’s main computer, as did their friends. He added that occasionally his friends used the PC unsupervised, but he was not concerned about this.

DC Moggach explained to the court how the devices were analysed.

Of the memory stick, he said: "The 32 images were saved in a ‘YP’ folder in this device, which is significant because somebody created that.

"In my experience of dealing with child pornography cases, ‘YP’ tends to stand for ‘young porn’."

The trial is set to continue in February.