June 2008

Video shame of porn man

PUBLIC exposure was the right thing for a pervert who spied on swimmers as they changed and watched an hour-long hard porn child abuse video, a judge said.

Matthew MacDiarmid was caught with a camera and other voyeurism equipment in the cubicle area of a York swimming pool, said prosecutor Rob Galley at York Crown Court.

Following his arrest, police routinely checked his computer and they found three child porn videos downloaded from the internet, one of which was hard-core and lasted an hour. All featured girls aged 12 to 14.

Judge Stephen Ashurst, the Recorder of York, said: “It is a good thing your offending has come out into the open,” the Recorder of York, Judge .

“It is now public knowledge. It means people who know you can share that problem with you. They are impressed by the fact you have been able to come to terms with what you have done in the past and you are determined not to repeat these serious errors of judgement.”

He was sentencing MacDiarmid, 20, of The Village, Strensall, who admitted three charges of possessing child porn at York Crown Court, to a two-year community order including two years’ supervision and a sex offender treatment programme.

A year ago, he admitted voyeurism at York Magistrates Court, where he got a three-year community order with supervision and rehabilitation activities. He must also register as a sex offender for the next five years.

 

The judge said the probation service had reported that he was making good progress on the magistrates’ order.

Mr Galley said after MacDiarmid was released following his arrest on February 27 last year for the swimming pool offence, he returned to the police station in the early hours of the next day to confess to the child porn on his computer.

Police had already seized the home PC and were about to send it for lengthy forensic analysis by computer experts. MacDiarmid had deleted the videos in an attempt to stop his father finding out what he had been viewing.

For MacDiarmid, Nicholas de la Poer said his family and girlfriend were standing by him.