A Bafta-nominated Scottish actor was caught with a hoard of sickening child abuse images when detectives carried out a dawn raid on his home.
Nathan McHallam, 18, was arrested in front of his parents after hundreds of depraved images were found on the family laptop.
McHallam – who was nominated for his leading role in Crowman in 2016 – was found guilty by a jury at Perth Sheriff Court.
He has been placed on the sex offenders register and was released on bail while the court prepares pre-sentencing reports on him.
The jury took just 30 minutes to find the teenager guilty of possessing child abuse images at the home he shares with his parents in Bankfoot, Perthshire, in October and November 2018.
PC Tracy Marsden, 42, told the jury that she and other members of a specialist team carried out a raid on McHallam’s home at 7am on November 5 2018.
“I was part of the proactive CID group in Dundee,” she said. “We had a warrant to search the premises for indecent images of children.
“There were three people present – the accused and his parents. We explained information had been received that there were devices with indecent images of children on them, which had been downloaded in that property.”
She said the images were discovered in folders which could only be accessed through McHallam’s log-in password and he was arrested and taken for interview. He said: “I don’t know how they got there.”
DC Daniel Neill, of Police Scotland’s cybercrime unit, told the court that any suggestion the actor’s laptop had been “hacked” was extremely unlikely.
He told the jury that only someone with access to McHallam’s password could have been responsible for viewing the images.
Depute fiscal Eilidh Robertson said: “He said he doesn’t know how the images got to be on the profile and he hasn’t given his password to anyone. He does suggest that perhaps his account was hacked?”
DC Neill said: “The level of knowledge and skill required to carry out that action is significant. It is technically possible to hack any computer if you have the skill and ability.
“A person of that level of skill and ability is unlikely to be interested in a normal person’s laptop.”
He told the court that 274 images were found on the laptop and more than half of those were at the most serious Category A level. There were 72 Category B and 51 Category C.
“The images were predominantly female children aged between six and 12 years old approximately. The user was absolutely aware of the content.”
McHallam was initially alleged to have started downloaded images in 2013, when he was just 11 years old, the charge was amended to restrict the period to less than a month during 2018.
McHallam was granted bail with a number of strict conditions restricting his use of internet-enabled devices.
Sheriff William Wood urged McHallam to be “full and frank” about what he had done when he is interviewed by social workers and staff from the Tay Project for sex offenders.
