BILLY RHODES OF PAISLEY SENTENCED FOR CHILD SEX OFFENCES AND POSSESSION OF SICK IMAGES

In July 2021, Billy Rhodes, 22, was convicted of possessing numerous indecent images depicting children being violated, abused, and tortured, and was subsequently placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for a period of five years. He was also fitted with an electronic monitoring tag and ordered to attend a sex offender rehabilitation program for three years.

Paisley Sheriff Court was informed that Rhodes was found at his parents’ home in Linwood with more than 100 indecent photographs of children under the age of 13. Some of these images showed infant girls aged between one and two being sexually abused by adult men. The court heard that Rhodes was under mandatory supervision by the local authority for three years, required to wear an electronic tag for seven months, and mandated to participate in a program aimed at working with sex offenders.

The court further ordered that Rhodes be registered as a sex offender for a period of five years.

This case was preceded by an incident in May 2021, when police raided Rhodes’ family home in Renfrew's Morar Drive following intelligence reports. During the raid, officers discovered that Rhodes had stored indecent images—some classified in the most serious Category A—in his possession, with the images dating back over three years.

The police obtained a search warrant on July 15, 2020, and arrived at the residence around 7:50 am. They were granted entry by a family member and found Rhodes in his bedroom along with a laptop and a desktop PC tower. Analysis of these devices uncovered more than 100 images categorised as A, B, and C, depicting child abuse, including explicit material involving infants.

A prosecutor explained that on the Aspire laptop, 36 images were found: 32 in Category C, one in Category B, and one in Category A—all inaccessible to Rhodes. The desktop PC contained 89 images: 72 Category C, five Category B, and 12 Category A. These images were subject to further analysis.

Following the investigation, Rhodes was arrested and pleaded guilty in Paisley Sheriff Court to possessing indecent and pseudo-photographs of children over a three-year period from April 25, 2017, to July 21, 2020, and to having the images in his possession.

During his court appearance, Sheriff Colin Pettigrew acknowledged the severity of the offences, stating, “These are serious offences and they are being properly recognised by your agent as such. Given your absence of previous convictions we cannot proceed to sentencing today.” Rhodes is scheduled to return to court on May 28 for sentencing, which will be contingent upon social work reports and a Restriction of Liberty Order assessment.