NATHAN MCRAE BROUGHTY FERRY MAN CAUGHT WITH CHILD ABUSE VIDEOS IN DETAILED POLICE RAID

In a disturbing case that has shocked the community of Broughty Ferry, a local man named Nathan McRae, aged 24, was found to be in possession of a significant amount of illegal child abuse material. The incident came to light after police conducted a search of his residence in December, uncovering a disturbing collection of videos and images depicting the abuse of children as young as three years old.

According to court proceedings held at Dundee Sheriff Court, McRae was discovered with more than 14 hours of video footage containing child abuse material. Among these files, two were classified at the highest severity level, indicating the most severe forms of child exploitation. The police investigation revealed that McRae had been actively downloading these videos from the internet, driven by what he described as “morbid curiosity.”

During questioning, McRae admitted to police that he derived sexual gratification from the material and was fully aware that possessing such content was illegal. He stated that he had obtained the videos through a file-sharing website, where he would search using specific keywords, browse through files, and download those that appeared to contain indecent images of children. He further confessed that he knew some of the images involved minors under the age of 16.

The police action was initiated after Operation ALBA, an ongoing investigation targeting online child exploitation, received information linking McRae’s internet IP address to consistent and substantial downloading of child abuse images. On December 7, officers attended McRae’s home on Abernethy Road, where he lived alone, armed with a search warrant. During the search, McRae told officers, “What happened was, there was a file-sharing website and I downloaded some files that contained child pornography, but they’ve all been deleted.”

However, the search uncovered a PC tower that contained 69 video files depicting children aged between three and 14 being abused, with severity levels ranging from one to five. Additionally, 14 images of child abuse were recovered from the same device. McRae was detained and cautioned at the scene.

In court, Fiscal depute Douglas Wiseman outlined the details of the case, stating, “The accused was asked what he knew about being in possession of child pornography and stated: ‘It would be myself in possession, it was a file-sharing website’.” Wiseman explained that McRae had admitted to actively searching for and downloading such material, acknowledging that he knew some of the images involved minors under 16 years of age.

McRae further explained that his motivation was driven by curiosity, saying, “If I downloaded it and it was good to watch, fine. If I downloaded one and found it distasteful, I would delete it. It was a morbid curiosity to download them.” When asked if he was sexually aroused by the files, he responded affirmatively, stating, “Yes.”

He also admitted that the majority of the material he sought was of females over 18, but he kept some images of underage girls. The case was adjourned until November 11 for further reports, and McRae was placed on the sex offenders register as part of the court’s ruling.