A former children’s charity worker who told police his massive stash of child abuse images was “his guilty secret” has been jailed.
Adrian Snowball – who was used by a Scottish Government agency as a champion for getting people online – initially claimed he had nothing to do with the enormous horde of pictures because he was straight and “had a low sex drive”.
But he later admitted he downloaded the haul of more than 10,000 still images and videos retrieved from his laptop and hard drives after a police raid of his home in the East Neuk of Fife.
As The Courier revealed, Snowball was head of learning and development at Stirling-based charity Aberlour Child Care Trust until 2008.
He also served as the chairman of East Neuk First Responders, was treasurer of the Carnbee and Arncoach Community Council and was part of the area’s development trust.
He initially denied having anything to do with allegations of sex abuse images being downloaded at his home.
But when confronted by police with forensic evidence secured from his laptop he broke down and said: “It’s time to come clean.”
Snowball then branded his haul his “guilty secret”.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard Snowball had 623 still images and 235 videos at category A – the highest level of depravity – along with 1270 images and 145 videos at category B and 8603 pictures and 387 videos at category C.
Snowball, 63, of Main Road, Arncoach, Fife, pleaded guilty on indictment to possessing indecent images of children on February 22 this year.
Defence solicitor Anne Duffy said: “In 2010 he had a brain abscess and was in a coma for five months – it left him with sight impairment, speech difficulties, memory problems and he is on a number of medications. He’s been assessed as being very vulnerable in a custodial setting.”
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael jailed Snowball for six months and placed him on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
He said: “The number of images and videos at category A means a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
