News / Jailed for a year over ‘grave’ child porn videos
A MAN from Mid Yell who admitted possessing child pornography videos of an “extremely grave nature” has been sent to jail for just over a year.
Sam Hesketh, of 6 Burra Park Road, previously admitted permitting indecent images of children to be taken between 3 May and 5 June 2015.
Lerwick Sheriff Court heard in April that the police searched the 29-year-old’s house after a national agency became concerned about his online activity.
A total of 14 videos containing abuse of young boys and girls were found, several of which were designated as category A.
Defence agent Tommy Allan told the court on Wednesday that his client had been struggling with integrating into his local community since news of the charges broke, as well as with dealing with his own mental health.
He said that while the offences were of an “extremely grave nature”, the quantity of videos wasn’t as great as has been experienced in similar court cases in the past, which often involved thousands of pictures or clips.
Hesketh “appreciates what he has done wrong” and is prepared to “address any underlying issues” that led him into possessing the videos.
Sheriff Philip Mann said that while the videos were regarded as being at the top end of the scale in terms of severity, there were not a “large number” of them and that had to be taken into account.
However, every time a video is viewed, “it is an abuse of the children involved” and subsequently “creates a demand” for more images to be made.
Sheriff Mann decided to put Hesketh behind bars for 13 months and ordered for him to be placed him on licence for two years upon his release.
He also ordered the forfeiture of items taken by police during their search of the man’s property.
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