A pervert who trawled “dark web” sites to gather a stash of violent child abuse images before sharing them online has been jailed for three years.
Craig Robertson was under a strict court order that was supposed to prevent him carrying out any further sexual offences after he was jailed in 2010 for an almost identical offence.
But despite that he logged on to a hidden Russian website and downloaded hundreds of images and videos of children being abused that were ranked at the top level of seriousness by police experts.
He then used an instant messaging service to contact other paedophiles and send the pictures on to them.
But despite that Robertson told police: “I would never harm a child.”
Depute fiscal Eilidh Robertson told Dundee Sheriff Court there were 278 videos featuring children from babies to age 15.
She said: “There were 229 of them at category A – the top level. There were a further 457 still images, 217 at category A.”
Robertson, 32, of Main Street, Leuchars, pleaded guilty on indictment to downloading and distributing indecent images of children at his home between June 14 and August 12 last year.
In 2010 Robertson – then known as Craig Bence – was jailed for 10 months at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court for an almost identical crime.
Police who visited his home on an unrelated matter found more than 2000 twisted images on his computer.
Officers then found other titles suggesting the images were of an indecent nature, many involving children.
The computer was seized and police found 1,705 indecent images.