A POLICE child protection officer yesterday admitted downloading thousands of images of child pornography.
Iain Duncan, 28, pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow to possessing 3,319 indecent images of children and 20 moving images.
Duncan, of Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, also admitted sending and receiving 326 indecent images of youngsters.
The
former constable with Strathclyde Police was also found with a six-minute video showing "graphic images" of babies being abused.
He was caught after a police operation in Surrey which uncovered an e-mail address he had been using. He has since resigned from the police, where he had been working in the family protection unit at the time of his arrest. His duties were believed to include taking statements from victims of abuse.
John Scullion, prosecuting, said that at the time of the offence Duncan had been seconded to the unit for just eight days.
After the raid in Surrey, a man was charged with possession and distribution of indecent images of children. Investigations revealed e-mail addresses of individuals with whom he had been exchanging the images. One was identified as Duncan.
On 12 January, police went to his home address and were let in by Duncan's wife, who was with their baby son.
When Duncan returned he initially denied to officers there were indecent images of children on his laptop, which he had for six months.
Police also removed a computer from his parents' house on which nearly 3,000 stills and three moving images were recovered. On his laptop were 383 stills and 17 moving images.
Investigators also discovered that 159 indecent images of children were sent by Duncan to correspondents and he received 167 images from them. He sent and received e-mails from a total of 25 addresses.
Mr Scullion said that when charged Duncan replied: "I know what I've done is wrong. I'm sorry. I'm ashamed."
Mr Scullion added: "A film lasting approximately six minutes contained graphic images of babies being abused and prepared for abuse. This video included information on how to perform such abuse and on how best to disguise such activities."
He said, however, there was no evidence to show if the file had been viewed by Duncan.
Paul McBride, QC, defending, told the judge Lord Turnbull that it came from a system which was capable of being downloaded to another computer without being seen and claimed: "My instructions are that Duncan has not seen that file."
Duncan admitted two charges of possessing indecent images on 12 January at his own home and his parents' home, and distributing them over a period between 2 September, 2005 and 12 January, 2008.
The court heard that experts are continuing to examine Duncan's computer.
Lord Turnbull called for reports on Duncan before sentencing him on 7 May.
The full article contains 473 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
