A 34-year-old Inverness man has admitted downloading almost 1000 still images and videos of children being abused or posing erotically
Darren Bennett’s then home in Kingsview Terrace was raided by police on November 19 last year while he was in it with his partner and his mobile phone was seized.
Inverness Sheriff Court is at Inverness Justice Centre.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told Sheriff David Harvie that after analysis, 515 accessible stills and five accessible videos were discovered. She added that 458 images were inaccessible.
“A total of 366 stills and four of the videos were Category A [the most graphic kind of abuse],” she said. “The run-time of the videos was a total of three minutes and 27 seconds.”
The court heard that Bennett had now moved home to Duke Street in Glasgow.
He admitted downloading and possessing the material between January 30, 2023 and November 10, 2024.
Sentence was deferred until September 23 for a background report and a restriction of liberty order assessment.
An original September 2 date for sentencing was changed when defence solicitor advocate Mike Chapman informed the court that his client had a pre-booked holiday at the beginning of September.
Bennett was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register in the interim – the final length to be decided at sentencing.
His bail was continued but Sheriff Harvie declared before forfeiting the phone: “This has crossed the custodial threshold.”
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