June 2011

Culloden man had sex with under-age girl

AN Inverness man who had sex with a 15-year-old girl has been placed on probation for a year and has had his name added to the sex offenders register.

Appearing at Tain Sheriff Court, Stephen Williamson (22), admitted that on an occasion between July 1 and August 31 last year at Westford, Alness, he had unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl, then aged above 13 and under 16.

Sheriff David Sutherland placed Williamson, on one year’s probation, ordered him to donate £300 to Inverness Crisis Pregnancy Centre, and placed him on the sex offenders register for a year.

Update: Released and now living in Invergordon

December 2013

Factory worker jailed for seven years for child rape and abuse

A sex attacker convicted of raping a child and abusing four other girls has been jailed for seven years.

The children were all in primary school when Allan MacDonald preyed on them during a five year reign of terror.

MacDonald appeared at the High Court in Glasgow after being found guilty of rape and five charges of lewd and libidinous conduct.

The 45 year-old denied the offences claiming he had been the target of a conspiracy.

Judge Lord Jones said the victims had suffered “emotional and psychological harm” as a result of what happened.

The girls were aged between six and 10 when the offences occurred between 1985 and 1990 in Inverness-shire.

After inducing them to commit sex acts, he rewarded them with sweets.

He prevented them from telling people what had happened by threatening the young victims that they would be taken into care by social workers

MacDonald preyed on them at his home, in a caravan, a lock-up, outdoors in a forest and in his car.

One of the women described in detail how she and her friend were abused and asked to perform sex acts on each other and on MacDonald.

She also claimed he had full intercourse with her when she was seven or eight years of age.

Another described how she had been playing in a local playpark when she was called over by MacDonald.

He took her into his car where she was sexually assaulted by him.

Asked by prosecutor advocate depute Jane Farquharson if she understood what was happening to her the woman replied: “Not really. He was telling us what we should do.”

MacDonald of Ravencroft, Culbokie, was also placed on the sex offenders list indefinitely.

At a trial in Inverness he denied two charges of raping girls at his then home and five of lewd and libidinous behaviour between 28th September 1984 and 6th April 1990.

But was found guilty by a jury – all were  by a majority with the exception of one sexual assault which was unanimous.

September 2013

Inverness man on probation for child images

An Inverness man has been sentenced to three years probation after 15,220 images and 790 videos of child pornography were found on his computer.

Alan MacLeod, 46, was also banned from drinking alcohol for the duration of his sentence and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work.

Inverness Sheriff Court heard that he would download the photographs and videos when drunk.

When sober, he would be guilt ridden and delete the material.

The court heard that some of the indecent videos involved very young children.

The videos were so graphic they distressed the analyst whose job it was to recover them from the computer hardware, the court was told.

At a hearing in April, MacLeod admitted possessing the images and videos between July 2008 and August 2009.

A total of 2,695 photographs and 604 videos were at the top two levels of depravity.

Police caught MacLeod after receiving intelligence which disclosed the internet protocol address of his computer.

It was traced to his home and police searched the address in August 2009.

He immediately confessed to police that he had indecent images of children and a computer hard drive with holes drilled through it was recovered.

The court was told that he tried to corrupt the data but computer experts were still able to retrieve the images.

A total of 12,789 were found on it and 461 videos.

More material had been copied on to a computer tower which was recovered.

It had 1,807 images and 329 videos. Back-up discs had also been made and they stored another 624 images and videos.

MacLeod was also placed on the sex offender’s register for three years.

April 2013

Cops catch Inverness man with 15,000 child abuse images and videos

AN Inverness man was caught by cops with of over 15,000 indecent images of children and 790 videos, some of which were described as “distressing”, in his home.

Alan Macleod (46) of Friars Street, Inverness, appeared at the city’s sheriff court today and admitted between July 2008 and August 2010 at his home address having indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children.

Procurator Fiscal Alison Wylie said intelligence received by police from another department showed the Macleod’s IP address had been used in relation to indecent images of children. Police searched his home on August 25, 2010.

Macleod was asked if there was any indecent images of children and he said that there were and he got them from the internet.

Ms Wylie said: “He was asked about search terms he used and he gave an answer that was well known in those circles that would give him access to these sites.”

The fiscal said the hard drive that was recovered had “drill holes” in it, but they didn’t go right the way through so the information on it was able to be recovered.

The court heard a total of 12,789 images and a total 461 videos were found, ranging from level one to level five on the hard drive.

She said: “The videos were described as being at the graphic end of the scale, many had sound, which made them more distressing.”

Police also found a computer which contained 1,807 images and 329 videos, again all raging from level one to level five, along with a back-up file which had 584 images on it, bringing the total to 15,220 images and 790 videos.

Sheriff Margaret Neilson deferred sentence on Macleod until May 21 for background reports and placed him on the Sex Offenders Register in the interim