A former soldier caught with child abuse images at barracks in Leuchars before threatening to kill police officers is appealing his community sentence.
Fraser Waddell, 21, was spared a jail term after admitting downloading a haul of images at the Fife military base in May 2016.
But he has now launched a bid to have his community payback order quashed, with a hearing scheduled for the High Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh next week.
Dundee Sheriff Court was previously told some of the images found on Waddell’s phone were at the top end of the scale used to measure such pictures.
Police arrested Waddell, who served as a private in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, after swooping on his room at Leuchars.
A month later, he phoned Police Scotland Tayside Division’s Dundee headquarters threatening to seek out a specific officer and kill him and others.
Fiscal depute Sue Ruta told the court at the time: “He was asked to provide the PIN for his phone but said it wasn’t his. It was found to belong to his ex-partner who said she had given it to him.
“Upon examination it was found to contain 21 indecent images of children in the cache of the Google Chrome browser. Search terms indicated he had actively sought them out.”
Solicitor Paul Parker Smith said: “He left the Army on June 2 2017.
“He has been frank with social workers and has been open and honest about his sexual tendencies and habits.”
Waddell, of Larkhall, pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of taking or making indecent images of children on May 24 2016. He was on two separate bail orders at the time. His not guilty plea to possessing extreme porn images was accepted by prosecutors.
In February, Sheriff Alastair Brown imposed a community payback order with 150 hours’ unpaid work, two years’ supervision and conduct requirements around his internet use.
He said: “Every one of these images represents the real abuse of a real child and by providing an audience you encourage such conduct. If you make excuses for yourself and indulge any sexual interest in children it will only lead you into more trouble.”
In January 2017, Waddell was sentenced to 120 hours’ unpaid work and a year’s supervision over his threats against police.
Waddell was also placed on the sex offenders register for five years.
In 2016 he also avoided a prison sentence over an incident in which he pulled over two women on a motorway at 2.30am, pretending to be a police officer clad in body armour and a peaked cap.
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