EX-PRISON OFFICER ON SEX OFFENDERS REGISTER AFTER CHILD ABUSE STASH FOUND
A former prison officer has been placed on the sex offenders register after police discovered a huge stash of child abuse photos at his Dundee home.Paul McDowell appeared at the city's sheriff court to admit downloading the obscene material over a four year period.
Community food hub volunteer McDowell told police everything in his life had been spiralling and he suspected he might have PTSD.
After his laptop was confiscated by officers, nearly 5,000 photographs were discovered, including of infants and sexual material involving a dog.
McDowell will be sentenced next month.
Prosecutor Emma Farmer told the court that police received confidential information that child sexual abuse material had been accessed from McDowell’s Tweed Crescent home.
Officers were granted a warrant and raided his property at 8.25am on August 14 last year.
Inside, officers found 56-year-old McDowell and his partner.
Several devices were seized, including his Toshiba laptop.
McDowell willingly provided the passwords and expressed remorse, saying 'I don’t know why I did it,' and 'I’ve got issues, I know I’ve got a few issues,' adding that 'Everything in my life has started to spiral.' He also stated, 'I can only put my hands up,' and mentioned he might suffer from PTSD but has never received a diagnosis.
Police analysis revealed 4,873 indecent photographs of children, with 992 categorized as the most graphic kind of abuse.
Evidence of a further 2,049 inaccessible images was also found, including 504 Category A images.
Many photographs depicted children being abused by adults, some from as far back as 2020, with victims ranging from infants to 16-year-olds, including sexual activity with a dog.
Police also found 17,260 borderline images and another 24,000 uncategorized images.
Search terms used by McDowell online included phrases like 'little preteen p*ssy,' 'young girls,' 'innocent tiny vaginas,' 'preteen erotica,' 'pedo girls,' and 'PTHC' (preteen hardcore).
He is a first offender and has been on bail since a private court hearing last September.
He pled guilty to acquiring or making indecent images of children between August 2020 and September 2024 and possessing illicit files from January to September 2024.
The crown requested the forfeiture of his laptop.
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael deferred sentencing until September 30 pending background reports, kept McDowell on bail, and ordered him to be placed on the sex offenders register.
