Forres man sentenced to unpaid work over indecent image of child

A 45-year-old man who claimed he received an indecent image of a child while gaming on his computer has been sentenced to unpaid work.

Inverness Sheriff Court had previously been told that police received intelligence that an illegal image had been downloaded at a Forres address and raided the property with a search warrant.

The court heard that officers attended at Andrew Milton's home on North Road and he provided officers with the passwords for various devices, which were seized.

Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told Sheriff Gary Aitken that one category B image of a child was found on a Samsung tablet.

Milton admitted having the image on June 10 last year and sentence had been deferred for a background report.

He re-appeared before Sheriff Ian Cruickshank represented by solicitor Robert Cruickshank, who referred to the report which inferred that his client was denying responsibility.

He told the Sheriff: "I took it up with him and he seemed genuinely surprised.

“He was in possession of the image and it was on his computer, therefore the guilty plea was entered and he accepts responsibility.

The lawyer added candidly: "He tried to explain that he got the image as a result of a gaming session.”

Milton was sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid work, which was an alternative to custody.

In addition, he was placed under one year of social work supervision and was placed on the Sex Offender's Register for the same period.

Two of his devices were confiscated by the court.