A Glenrothes man with more than 1,300 indecent images of children on his computer has escaped a jail sentence.
Douglas Bell, of Cadham Court, was told he was “on the cusp” of imprisonment after claiming he was an internet hacker who targeted the computers of paedophiles in an effort to crash their machines.
The 37-year-old had previously pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of downloading indecent images of children between May 2010 and September 2013 at his parents’ address in Windygates.
He had been traced by police following an operation by officers who discovered a total of 1,328 images and seven videos on Bell’s devices, although he claimed they had not been downloaded for “sexual excitement”.
At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Sheriff Grant McCulloch said Bell was narrowly avoiding a spell behind bars.
“I trust that it has got through to you that being the end user is only half of the story,” he said. “Without end users there would be no images.
“The fact remains that people like you are the reason that this disgusting trade exists.
“Looking at the guidance, you are on the cusp of a custodial and non-custodial sentence. I feel that it is capable within the public interest to deal with this by a non-custodial order.”
Bell, a former IT technician, had initially claimed he was tracing real paedophiles so he could hack into their systems and crash their machines through a Distributed Denial of Service attack, often used by high-profile “hacktivist” groups.
These claims were largely dismissed at a previous hearing, where Bell also claimed he had to download the material in order to hack the original owner. He also conceded his efforts were unsuccessful.
Sheriff McCulloch warned Bell that a custodial sentence would follow should he appear before him again.
He was placed under supervision and had his name added to the sex offenders register for three years.