Man caught with disturbing child abuse images banned from play parks
A man who was caught with a haul of disturbing child abuse images has been banned from having any contact with children and from attending play parks.
Fabio D’Abramo was found to be in possession of more than 1,000 pictures and videos depicting “very young children”, including babies, being sexually abused by adults.
D’Abramo, 38, was spared a jail sentence despite a sheriff stating the victims in the horror material had displayed “obvious pain and distress” in the footage.
The Italian national was arrested after police officers received intelligence that indecent images of children were being accessed and raided his flat in Leith in November 2024.
Officers seized computer equipment and a mobile phone and discovered a total of 1,024 images and videos including around 500 rated at Category A - considered the most depraved.
He claimed to have only been looking at drawings of child sexual abuse on the internet but had downloaded encrypted files in Chinese and Russian and was unaware of their contents.
The court was told D’Abramo had used a torrent browser to download the files and a cyber crime report had found he had used the search term “pre teen hard core” to search for the material.
D’Abramo pleaded guilty to a charge of taking, or allowing to be taken, indecent photographs of children between May 25, 2021 and November 5, 2024 when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.
He returned to the dock for sentencing on Thursday, when solicitor Colin Severin said his client is attending sessions with the offenders’ sexual abuse organisation the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and has “expressed remorse”.
Mr Severin said: “Mr D’Abramo has taken full responsibility for his offending and does not attempt to minimise it in any way.”
Sheriff Charles Walls said: “You have pled guilty to a serious charge of taking, or permitting to be taken, indecent images of children. I have considered all the relevant guidelines in deciding on the appropriate sentence.
“In total there were 1,015 images and nine videos, and within the images 488 were Category A - the most serious category. You should be under no illusion the children in the material were a victim of your crime.”
The sheriff said aggravating factors included the “ages and vulnerability of the children” and that the young victims depicted had shown “obvious pain and distress”.
D’Abramo was sentenced to a 30 month social work supervision order and must carry out 280 hours of unpaid work in the community. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for 30 months.
The sheriff also imposed a conduct requirement where D’Abramo is banned from having any unsupervised contact with children under 18 and prohibited from attending children’s play parks.