A paedophile who was shopped to police by his family after they became suspicious of him when he became “nervous” as his partner’s son downloaded a Star Trek movie on to his laptop has dodged jail.
Andrew Miller’s “behaviour changed” as the movie was transferred on to his hard drive becoming visibly nervous as the man looked for a folder to store the space adventure movie in.
Miller was staying with his partner’s son in England for Christmas and New Year last year and when he went to bed that night his concerned host retrieved the laptop and searched through it.
He found a stash of twisted videos and indecent still images of young boys aged from five to 17.
When he returned home Miller’s family were alerted and they checked the laptop while he was out.
They also found the hoard of sick pictures and contacted police.
Depute fiscal Eilidh Robertson told Dundee Sheriff Court: “His partner’s son had offered to copy a Star Trek film to his hard drive as the accused is a fan of Star Trek.
“He was aware that the accused’s behaviour had changed and he was watching him very carefully.
“He was looking for a movies folder and the accused seemed anxious.
“The film was copied and at that point the accused relaxed.
“The partner’s son became suspicious and later retrieved the hard drive from his laptop case.
“He found naked pictures of young boys.
“A total of 42 videos with a run time of 32 hours 46 minutes were found, three of those at Category A.
“A total of 377 still images were also found, all were at Category C, showing erotic posing.
“There was also a quantity of concerning images which could be considered to be nudist pictures and some where the age of the people was not clear.”
Miller, 52, of Hepburn Street, Dundee, pleaded guilty to downloading, possessing and possessing with a view to distributing indecent images of children.
The pictures were downloaded between October 2010 and March 2013 and in his possession until January 10 2015.
One of the videos was distributed from his system between March 27 and March 28, 2013.
David Sinclair, defending, said: “He is in full-time employment but whether that continues now that he has tendered this plea remains to be seen.”
Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC imposed a three-year community payback order with supervision, 230 hours of unpaid work.
She ordered Miller to take part in a sex offender’s groupwork programme.
Miller was also placed on the sex offenders register for three years.
Sherriff Drummond said: “These are serious matters that involve you downloading various indecent images of children and possession of those.”