Court / Pensioner had thousands of indecent images of children

SENTENCING of an elderly man who was found to be in possession of thousands of indecent images of children has been deferred for reports.

At Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday morning, Brian Laing pleaded guilty to two charges – one of possession of these images and also of permitting the images to be taken.

The offence were committed at his home address of Staneyhill, Lerwick between 17 April 2020 and 2 February 2022 and only came to light after staff in a local care home, where his wife was residing at the time, was setting up an iPad device he had previously been using.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said police were alerted and his home was searched when videos, more images and printed photos were seized.

The fiscal said that overall more than 2,000 images were found. Some were classed to be in the worst category, with the majority of the images showing children three to five years old.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank deferred sentence for a social enquiry report as well as a restriction of liberty assessment.

Seventy four year old Laing is due to appear again before the court on 9 November.

He has meanwhile been put on the sex offenders list, with the length of his inclusion to be determined at sentencing.