MAN WHO DOWNLOADED CHILD ABUSE IMAGES TOLD POLICE 'IT WAS ME'
A COUNTY man who downloaded indecent images of children told police "it was me" when they arrived at his door.Lindsay Johnston was caught with the haul of child abuse pictures and videos when police raided his family home on Sycamore Avenue in Port Seton.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that Police Scotland received intelligence the images were being accessed at the property and arrived with a search warrant at about 8am on April 21, 2024.
Fiscal depute Cheryl Porter told the court that 49-year-old Johnston admitted his guilt straight away, stating “It was me, I looked at stuff on Telegram.” He also told officers: “There will be photos on my phone of teenagers on TikTok, but nothing nude.
Last year, I downloaded some stuff.
I backed it all up to my Google Drive and when I went to delete stuff, the account was locked.” Ms Porter said that a mobile phone and a laptop were seized during a search of the property but the computer device did not hold any images on it.
The court heard that the mobile phone was analysed by cybercrime officers and a total of 106 still images and 29 videos were discovered involving the sexual abuse of children aged from six to 15.
The fiscal said that the breakdown of the images was 20 at Category A – the most serious end of the scale – along with 20 at Category B and 66 Category C.
The videos were rated at 13 Category A, 12 at Category B and a further four Category C.
Sheriff Christopher Dickson placed Johnston on the sex offenders' register and deferred sentence for the preparation of a social work report and restriction of liberty order assessment to next month.
Johnston pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home between March 13 and April 21, 2024, when he appeared at the Capital court.
—————————————————————————————————— A Port Seton man has been placed on the sex offenders’ register for two years after admitting to possessing indecent images of children.
Lindsay Johnston, 49, was found to have downloaded the material onto his mobile phone following a police raid at his home on Sycamore Avenue in April 2024.
Officers discovered a total of 106 still images and 29 videos involving the sexual abuse of children aged between six and 15.
The material included 20 Category A images — the most severe classification — along with 20 Category B and 66 Category C images.
The videos were also graded by seriousness, with 13 classified as Category A, 12 as Category B, and four as Category C.
Johnston pleaded guilty to the offence at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in February and returned for sentencing on Friday.
Sheriff Christopher Dickson imposed a community-based sentence instead of a custodial term.
Johnston was placed under the supervision of social work services for 24 months and ordered to complete 165 hours of unpaid work.
He has also been placed on the sex offenders’ register for a period of two years.
