Edinburgh OAP had sickening hoard of 370,000 child abuse images

A pervert pensioner who was caught with more than 370,000 horrific child abuse images has been spared a jail sentence.

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Leslie Rutherford, 66, spent two decades trawling the internet for the sick haul of photos and videos depicting children being sexually abused by adults.

Police raided Rutherford’s home in Edinburgh last year following a tip off and seized several electronic devices.

Paedophile: Child abuse image hoarder Leslie Rutherford

Cyber crime officers discovered the vile OAP had downloaded a total of 373,123 sickening images including 464 rated as Category A - the worst end of the spectrum.

Rutherford pled guilty to possessing indecent images of children between 1999 and last year when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month and narrowly avoided a stretch behind bars when he returned for sentencing.

Edinburgh child abuse images pervert told detectives he was 'glad' to be caught

Lawyer Nigel Bruce, defending, told the court his client was married with no children but his marriage is now over.

Sheriff Nigel Ross acknowledged the “number of images downloaded was very high” but decided not to issue a custodial sentence.

Rutherford was instead placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for five years and ordered to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work in the community.

The pensioner was also placed under social work supervision for three years and banned from having any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 16.

The sheriff also ordered Rutherford not to enter any children’s play parks and to attend sessions with the specialist sex offender organisation CISSO.

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Previously fiscal depute Anna Chisholm told the court police swooped on Rutherford’s home at the Newbridge area of the capital on September 7 last year.

Ms Chisholm said “the accused was not present but family members were” as he was at work at the time of the raid. He was later traced and arrested.

The fiscal said 464 of the images found were at Category A - the worst level - while 511 were Category B and 372,148 were Category C.

The court heard 682 videos - 118 Category A - of children being sexually abused were also found along with the massive collection of still images.

Rutherford pleaded guilty to two offences of possessing indecent images of children between March 11, 1999 and September 7 last year.

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