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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Emylie Howie

Pervert had haul of sickening child sex abuse and bestiality images in Barrhead home

A twisted paedophile could be facing jail after he admitted to being in possession of sickening child sexual abuse photographs and bestiality videos.

Vile Hugh MacPherson stored sickening images and videos of child sexual exploitation, with one video involving a dog and a young child aged around 10 or 12.

MacPherson, 35, admitted he had sickening material for over two years at his home in Barrhead’s Wraes View.

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In the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court, the creep admitted that - on various occasions between June 3, 2018 and March 17, 2021 - he was in possession of indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children and that he was also in possession of an “extreme pornographic image depicting, in an explicit and realistic way, bestiality.”

Prosecutor, Dana Barclay told the court that cops raided MacPherson’s home in March last year and discovered the devices where the horrific child sex abuse material was stored.

Cybercrime examiners discovered four still and four moving images depicting child sexual exploitation and abuse on a device in a folder.

Ms Barclay explained: “At 8.20am on Wednesday, March 17, police officers attended at the accused’s home address and he allowed them entry.

“It was soon made apparent that there was specialised computer equipment, including computer servers, in the loft area of the house.

“Donna Munro, a Cybercrime examiner attended to examine the server.

“Cybercrime examiners interrogated 30 devices seized from the property and confirmed they were negative for indecent images of children and the devices were returned.

“Detectives constables Calum Baird and June McKay found indecent images of children on a hard drive with Technet device and produced a report on their findings.”

Ms Barclay described to the court an example of a “Category-A moving image”, saying it was “three minutes and 19 seconds long and shows a female child aged about 10 to 12 years of age who is sitting in a chair. She pulls her skirt up.”

She added that a dog could also be seen in the clip, which involved the child performing a sex act on herself.

Ms Barclay went on: “An example of a Category-A still image shows a female child aged about 15, performing a sex act on a male.”

Ms Barclay explained that in relation to the hard drive, the name sof folders and backup locations indicated that the user who initially created or downloaded the files was named ‘Hugh.’

She told how a scanned image of a paper counterpart driving licence in the name of Hugh MacPherson was found on the drive as well as a scanned image of a passport in MacPherson’s name.

Defence solicitor Mr Yuill stated MacPherson has “no offending history “ and asked to reserve mitigation for the preparation of background reports.

Sheriff Eoin McGinty deferred sentencing for the preparation of a criminal justice social work report and a restriction of liberty order assessment.

Ms Barclay sought a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) - an order put in place by the court to protect the public, particularly children and vulnerable people.

MacPherson will return to court next month for sentencing and consideration of the SOPO will be determined on the same date.

He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register meantime and his bail was continued.

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