A high-risk sex offender has walked free from Perth Sheriff Court despite having pled guilty to possessing child pornography.
Predatory paedophile Steven Paramore, who has admitted in the past that he poses a risk to children, will be sentenced in the new year.
The disabled 50-year-old, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and arrived at court on a mobility scooter, was caught with almost 100 depraved images on his home computer.
He first appeared at Perth Sheriff Court on September 8 to face charges alleging that he downloaded the images over an eight-year period between May 22, 2002 and May 26, 2010.
Released on bail, he was back in police cells then in court within hours after breaching a bail condition banning him from having access to the internet.
Officers had checked up on Paramore and found he’d got a new computer within hours of leaving court on September 8.
The computer tower was sitting in plain sight at his home in Victoria Street, Perth, fully set up and linked to the web.
Depute fiscal Alan Kempton told the court that Paramore was “a registered sex offender who was deemed to be of high risk of reoffending.”
The accused was being carefully supervised by police officers in light of his previous offending behaviour and was regularly visited to enable them to carry out risk assessments.
On May 25 this year they contacted Paramore to inform him they would be making a visit to his home and he agreed that they could examine his computer.
The court heard that he had been downloading and storing images for some time but had apparently tried to cover his tracks.SearchHowever, he was caught out by a single image that persuaded the officers a more thorough search of the computer was warranted.
His computer and memory stick were eventually seized and examined and a total of 92 images of children aged between five and 16 were discovered.
Mr Kempton said the images were all at the lower end of the Copine scale, with 73 assessed as level one and 19 at level two a rating of five is reserved for the very worst images of sexual abuse.
But they come against a background of sexual offences that have seen Paramore jailed more than once.
In 2001 he was placed on probation for three years at Perth Sheriff Court in connection with an an offence against young people.
Under the conditions of his probation he was ordered to seek help from the Tay Project, which works to rehabilitate those who have been convicted of sexual offences.
He was also banned from living in a house with children, ordered not to take work involving children and not to be alone with children for the duration of the order.
In 2002 he was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment at Manchester Crown Court in connection with charges of indecent assault and gross indecency.
Interviewed by Tayside Police in September after a full examination of the computer equipment, Paramore accepted that he had downloaded the images.
He was granted bail on September 8 on the condition that he not have access to any electronic device capable of accessing the internet. However, the following day he was back online.
Paramore admitted yesterday that on various occasions between May 22, 2002 and May 26, 2010, he was in possession of indecent or pseudo-photos of children at his home address.
He also admitted that having been granted bail on September 8, 2010, at Perth Sheriff Court, subject to the condition that he did not own or access any electronic device capable of accessing the internet, he breached that condition on September 9 in that he had a computer tower and associated equipment capable of accessing the internet within his property in Victoria Street.
Despite his admission of breaching the terms of his bail, Sheriff Robert McCreadie gave Paramore his liberty yesterday, prior to sentencing on February 14.
He called for reports and officially placed Paramore on the sex offenders register in the interim.