Paedophile stole soiled nappies for sexual gratification

A sex offender boasted online about stealing soiled nappies and wanting to rape a baby, a court heard.

Ross Anderson admitted making and distributing indecent images of children when he appeared before Lerwick Sheriff Court today (Wednesday).

The 23-year-old from Duncansclett, Burra, also admitted making grossly offensive communications over social media about his desire to sexually abuse young children and use their excrement for sexual gratification.

The court heard how Anderson also had hundreds of images of himself posing in nappies, including some covered in faeces. 

Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie said cybercrime analysts considered some of the videos found on Anderson’s devices to be among the most disturbing they had ever encountered.

Police attended the address where Anderson lived with his parents and siblings on 20th December last year.

Hundreds of videos, including 241 of the most serious category, were found across three devices with a total runtime of almost eight and a half hours.

There were also thousands of still images, the earliest of which dated back to 2016 – when Anderson was only 16 years old.

Quoting the author of the cybercrime report, Mr MacKenzie said the material showed the accused had an “obsession with toddlers in nappies”.

According to the report, some of the images were at the “most extreme” categorisation due to the young age of the children and the nature of the abuse shown.

The young victims were obviously distressed, the report added.

Analysts also discovered the accused was distributing material via applications using end to end encryption.

Mr MacKenzie said the cybercrime experts were particularly concerned that three of the pictured children, aged four to seven, were known to the accused.

He said those images were not indecent but had likely been taken from social media.

The content of chatroom messages was also discovered.

Mr Mackenzie said these messages went beyond indecent and obscene and were “quite simply depraved”.

They included descriptions of the soiled nappies, which Anderson claimed he stole on a daily basis and graded according to how soiled they were.

Messages also indicated Anderson had committed “extreme acts of sexual abuse” although further comments suggested these were fantasies he lied about.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank adjourned the hearing for reports to be produced ahead of sentencing.

“This is an incredibly serious matter,” he said.

“In preparation I’ve viewed the cybercrime report.

“In my job you have to assimilate a lot of written material, which may be uncomfortable and disturbing to read.

“The email exchanges I’ve seen here are utterly grotesque.”

Anderson’s defence agent asked to reserve his mitigating comments until after the reports had been produced.

However, he said his client had been engaging with an organisation called Stop It Now, which had agreed to produce a report outlining its work with him.

Anderson will be sentenced on 4th October. 

Ahead of sentencing, Sheriff Cruickshank told him he must comply with sex offender notification requirements.