Edinburgh crime: James McCabe caught with horror haul of child abuse material and bestiality

Edinburgh man caught with disturbing hoard of child abuse and bestiality

Warning, this article contains content readers could find distressing.

An Edinburgh pervert has been caught with a horror collection of child abuse material – including images of a six month old baby being raped and tortured.

James McCabe was found in possession of thousands of pictures and movies showing the sexual abuse of male and female children when police raided his Edinburgh home in 2021. Disturbing video footage discovered on the 61-year-old’s computer also showed children being forced into “sexual activity with animals, particularly dogs”.

James McCabe outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was also told one image downloaded by the fiend featured “the depiction of the rape of an infant”. McCabe appeared in the dock at the city court on Tuesday, March 7, where he pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children between April 2020 and September 2021.

Fiscal depute Matthew Miller told the court police received an anonymous tip off regarding the downloading of the material at McCabe’s home in the Murrayfield area of the Capital. Officers arrived with a search warrant on September 9, 2021, and McCabe pointed out a computer tower unit that he had used to access the material.

Neighbours report Midlothian army veteran over racist outburst

Mr Miller said analysis of the equipment revealed McCabe was using the profile name “Hamish” and files under that name contained the indent images and videos. The prosecutor told the court there were a total of 6,574 images and 588 videos of children being sexually abused by adults and forced to pose in a sexual manner.

The court heard the collection contained 958 pictures at Category A, 672 at Category B and 4944 rated as Category C. The movies were detailed as 460 at Category A, 111 Category B and 17 at Category C.

Mr Miller gave harrowing descriptions of the material possessed by McCabe including children aged between six months and 16 years old involved in penetrative sexual conduct. The fiscal said “a large number of images were particularly graphic” and included the “depiction of the rape of infants”.

He said the movies found also featured male and female children aged between six months and 16 years old “engaging in sexual posing” and “penetrative sex”. Mr Miller added: “A number of search terms on the device were indicative of Mr McCabe having knowledge of child sex exploitation material.”

The fiscal said the total run time of the movies was 31 hours and 36 minutes and said the Crown were moving for for the forfeiture and destruction of the computer tower unit. Solicitor Callum Turner, defending, said his client was a first offender and had been engaging with the child abuse offenders organisation Stop It Now since his arrest.

Sheriff Christopher Dickson said: “This is an extremely serious matter and I will grant forfeiture of Crown label one [computer equipment] and I will defer sentence. You have today been convicted of an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and will be placed on the Sex Offenders Register.”

The sheriff also added McCabe’s name will forwarded to Scottish Ministers for consideration of him being banned from working with children and vulnerable adults in the future. McCabe was granted bail and sentence was deferred to next month for the preparation of social work reports and a restriction of liberty order assessment.

McCabe pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home at Baird Avenue, Edinburgh, between April 14, 2020 and September 9, 2021.

Edinburgh man pulls knife on boys selilng tablet outside East Lothian shop