Locations
Friars Street, Inverness, Scotland, IV1
Description
A 20-year-old man was told that downloading images of child abuse was not "a victimless crime" as he avoided a sentence of detention.
Michael Fallows, of Friars Street, Inverness was appearing for sentence before Sheriff Gary Aitken after previously admitting possessing 142 images.
Inverness Sheriff Court had been told that 43 of them were of the most extreme kinds of abuse.
The images were found on a Samsung device after police received intelligence that they had been downloaded on March 5, 2021.
Police raided the property at Montrose Mansions, in Corpach, and seized his phone.
Sentencing Fallows to 150 hours of unpaid community work and two years of social work supervision, Sheriff Aitken said: "This is actual abuse of children watched second hand and is not some Hollywood movie.
"It is commercial exploitation of children for sexual gratification and is fuelled by people like you surfing the net. Offending of this kind is by no means victimless far from it."
Fallows was also placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for two years.