Edinburgh crime: Pensioner caught with large haul of child abuse images jailed for 15 months

A pensioner who was caught with a large haul of child abuse images after he ended up in hospital when fell from a first floor window has been jailed.

Walter Bennie was caught with a large haul of child abuse images

Let us know what you think and join the conversation at the bottom of this article.

Walter Bennie was rushed to hospital after trying to climb down a drainpipe outside his home claiming a neighbour was speaking to him through hi-fi speakers she had attached to her ceiling.

Bennie, 69, was being treated for his injuries at the Edinburgh hospital when he voluntarily handed over eight memory cards containing child abuse images to medics.

Police then raided two homes belonging to the OAP and found devices containing more than 36,000 vile pictures which had been downloaded over an 11 year period.

The OAP pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children between 2009 and 2020 when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last year.

He returned to the dock for sentencing on Wednesday where Sheriff Norman McFadyen said he had carried out “a very serious offence over an extensive period”.

The sheriff said: “This is a case involving possession of a very large number of images of children with many at the highest end of indecency.

“I am satisfied, and in no doubt, there is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”

Bennie was jailed for 15 months and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

Lawyer Andrew Mellor, defending, told the court Bennie had “volunteered the [memory] cards to the doctor” and that “the circumstances are quite unusual in this case”.

Mr Mellor said: “He had been hearing his downstairs neighbour, who he believes, had hi-fi speakers attached to her ceiling and he was hearing her speaking to him.

“He climbed out the window of his flat and tried to get down the drainpipe and fell off, which is why he ended up in hospital.

“There is some suggestion from the hospital that my client was hearing voices but he is adamant that he was hearing his neighbour.”

Previously the court was told Bennie, of the city’s Hutchison area, was admitted to the capital’s Royal Edinburgh Hospital following “an incident” on June 12, 2020.

Fiscal depute Rosie Cook said Bennie handed over eight memory cards to a doctor and told him there were “images of children on the memory cards”.

Police were contacted and following a search of two properties several electronic devices were also found to have child abuse images stored on them.

The court was told Bennie had collected a total of 36,229 pictures of both male and female children being forced to engage in sexual activity with other children and adults.

Ms Cook said 5198 of the images had been classified as Category A - the most depraved level.

Bennie pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home between December 27, 2009 and September 1, 2020.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.