Edinburgh man caught with over 1,000 child abuse images is jailed
Police raided flat after receiving intelligence
An Edinburgh man caught in possession of disgusting child abuse images has been jailed.
Erwin Ian Schmid downloaded more than 1,000 images of children as young as four years old being sexually abused by adults to his mobile phone over a near four year period.
Schmid was found to have collected the pictures depicting female children being forced to engage in sexual acts when police raided his home in the Capital’s Wester Hailes area in January last year.
The 51-year-old was also caught in possession of images that showed young victims being sadistically abused by being tied up with rope and tape.
He pleaded guilty to possessing indecent photographs of children between September 15, 2021 and January 7 last year when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.
Schmid was back in the dock for sentencing on Tuesday, when defence agent David Storrie said his client was “suitably embarrassed and ashamed” at his offending.
Mr Storrie added Schmid had been “leading an isolated existence” after being shunned by his family and was planning on leaving Edinburgh.
Sheriff Graeme Watson said Schmid had attempted to minimise the offending and he believed his conduct had not caused any harm
The sheriff said: “Possessing, downloading and distributing indecent images of children is part of the process of child sexual abuse.
“Each photograph represents a child that has been abused and by accessing the material you are driving the demand for it.”
Sheriff Watson sentenced Schmid to a total of 205 days in custody and placed him on the sex offenders register for five years.
The sheriff also imposed a five year sexual harm prevention order that contains several computer and internet use restrictions as well as a ban on contact with any child under the age of 18.
Previously fiscal depute Rachel Hill said police received intelligence that child abuse material was being accessed at Schmid’s one bedroom flat and officers carried out a raid on January 10 last year.
Ms Hill said his mobile phone was seized and a forensic examination of the device revealed a total of 1116 images with 38 at Category A - the most depraved.
The fiscal said the victims were described as “mainly female, although some male, between the ages of four and 18 years of age”.