Elgin man told child porn he downloaded ‘destroyed’ children’s lives

A man who claimed he clicked a link to child porn on his phone by accident was the target of scathing criticism from a Sheriff.

Adam Betteridge, of Main Street in Elgin, was told by Sheriff Gary Aitken that he needs to “dramatically” adjust his attitude, before Sheriff Aikten added that the children he watched were “being brutalised”.

Betteridge was appearing at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing after previously admitting downloading still images and a video of children being abused.

Over a dozen of the images downloaded by the 32-year-old were of the most serious kind.

Sheriff Gary Aitken told him: "No matter how bad you thought your mental health was, I can assure you that the children you watched being brutalised were significantly more affected than you ever were and their lives were destroyed for your entertainment.

"This is far from trivial and it is not a victimless crime.

“You need to adjust your attitude quite dramatically and less of feeling sorry for yourself."

Inverness Sheriff Court had heard previously that the offence was discovered after police raided his home police and seized his phone.

After it was examined, it was found to contain 14 of the most serious types of child abuse images at Category A and one 10-second video.

Depute fiscal Pauline Gair told the court that experts also found three still images in Category B and two in category C.

All were inaccessible and had been downloaded between September 29, 2019 and September 8, 2022 - the day before Betteridge's home was searched.

Also found were deleted search histories which had saved words like "pedophile, young, younger, youngest, pedo and hairless”, Mrs Gair added.

Betteridge was placed on the Sex Offender's Register and under social work supervision for three years .

In addition, he was ordered to carry out 160 hours of unpaid community work.