A former religious centre youth worker who was caught with thousands of indecent pictures and videos of children has been jailed for 10 months.
Alistair McVean, 32, who worked at the Scripture Union’s Lendrick Muir centre in Kinross, was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
The shocking discovery was made when McVean dropped a memory stick on the staff room floor.
Perth Sheriff Court previously heard how McVean’s colleagues found the memory stick, which contained more than 150 pictures and more than 50 videos of girls as young as nine.
The 32-year-old previously admitted possessing almost 5,500 images and videos, which were downloaded between June 1 2006 and January 20 2012.
Some of the material was categorised as level five, at the top of scale, and all featured girls between the ages of nine and 16.
McVean admitted to his bosses that the device was his and he was suspended from his post.
On Wednesday, McVean’s agent Archie Hill said his client made no attempt to distribute the images.
He said: “Mr McVean does recognise the serious nature of this offence. He realises he’s fuelling this industry. He does exhibit remorse.”
Mr Hill said a background report had made reference to mental health issues.
Sheriff Fiona Tait said there are clear sentencing guidelines set out by the appeal court.
She told McVean: “This is a case where there’s a small number of images at level four or five where the range of sentence is custodial.”
She sentenced McVean to 10 months in prison.
McVean was suspended and later dismissed from his duties with Scripture Union Scotland after the allegations emerged.