A children’s swimming instructor from Dundee who admitted downloading a stash of child abuse images has avoided jail.
Andrew Gray – a special Olympics gold medallist who now teaches swimming to disabled children – was caught when police raided the home he shares with his parents.
They found hundreds of child abuse images of young boys and girls on Gray’s computer.
Gray – an assistant Scout leader who who won gold in the 25 metre butterfly at the 2008 games in Beijing – downloaded the images at the home he shares with his parents.
Fiscal depute Saima Rasheed told Dundee Sheriff Court: “The accused has Asperger’s syndrome but is not on any medication.
“Confidential information was received indicating that indecent images of children were accused from an IP address attributed to his home address.
“A warrant was executed on September 9 last year and the accused was traced along with his parents within.
“The accused stated ‘Can I ask when this was as I had a problem before’. His parents then explained about images they had discovered on his mobile phone previously.
“Officers were informed their computer tower was at a repair company, where a hard drive and computer tower were seized.
“Both contained indecent images of children.
“The external hard drive contained 710 indecent images, including 87 at the top level. These images are of male and female children aged between two and 15 years old.”
Gray, 37, of Dunmore Gardens, Dundee, earlier pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of taking or making indecent images of children at his home between March 18 and August 29 last year.
Sheriff Alastair Brown imposed a community payback order with 150 hours of unpaid work and three years’ supervision.
He also ordered Gray to take part in a sex offenders groupwork programme and to abide by strict conditions on his access to the internet. Gray was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
