A Fife man caught with thousands of child abuse images claimed he was “researching” to snare other paedophiles.
Logan Chapman, 21, was found to have, in a room shared with a younger boy, a computer containing the vile pictures.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard that Chapman had been using a Tor server to browse the internet anonymously.
Of the 1,926 still images recovered from the device, 217 were Category A – the worst kind.
He was also found to have one video, which was rated as Category C.
Search terms such as “Lolita” had been used to find the images, which were on a “system unit” – the tower component of a computer.
Attraction to youngsters
Fiscal depute Claire Bremner told the court Chapman broke down when confronted.
She said: “The locus was the home address of the accused, where he lived with his parents and three brothers.
“At 7am officers of Police Scotland executed a search warrant and were let in by the accused’s father.
“The accused was asked questions about his electronic devices.
“He stated he had a mobile phone and a PC, which were in his bedroom, and provided the PIN codes for these.
“A system unit containing images of child sexual abuse was recovered from the bedroom he shared with his brother.
“He stated he was attracted to young females and young feminine males.
“He said he used a Tor browser to go into chatrooms to discuss politics.
“He said he was trying to research in order to report images to the relevant authorities.
“He then broke down and said he knew it was wrong and needed help.”
Ms Bremner said 217 images at category A, 327 at category B and 1,218 category C images were inaccessible to the user. However 164 images at category C were viewable.
Charges
Chapman, of Allan Park, Hill of Beath, admitted taking or making indecent images of children at an address in Cowdenbeath between February 1 2018 and June 17 last year.
Sentence was deferred for reports and Chapman was placed on the sex offenders register.
