Inverness ‘paedophile’ jailed for having graphic indecent images of children being abused - one of whom was under two years old
A convicted sex offender described by social workers as "a paedophile" was jailed for 15 months for having graphic indecent images of children being abused, one of whom was under two years old.
Roy Howe was appearing for sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court following the preparation of a social work background report after the 36-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to possessing the obscene material between January 2019 and September 28, 2023.
Sheriff Robert Frazer noted that Howe, of Telford Street, Inverness had continued to source photographs of children being abused for as long as six months after he was placed on a community payback order (CPO) for a similar offence.
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This perturbed the sheriff who adjourned his court to consider what to do with Howe, whose solicitor Natalie Paterson tried to persuade the judge not to jail his client.
She told him: "He has expressed a wish to change. He has a job offer in forestry and has no other matters outstanding.
"He has also completed the unpaid hours of community work imposed by the previous community payback order so there are 300 hours available to the court."
But Sheriff Frazer responded: "The real difference here is he has a previous conviction in March 2023 when he was put on a CPO and on the Moving Forward to Change programme for sex offenders.
"Then there is a six-month period after he was put on that order when he committed analogous offending. Custody is uppermost in my mind."
The sheriff had been told that a total of 239 images were found after police officers carried out a routine inspection at Howe’s home.
Fiscal depute Susan Love said that Howe was “subject to device inspections due to his previous offending” and devices seen in his property were seized for analysis.
The pictures - all of which were inaccessible to any other user as they had been deleted - showed girls aged five to seven “dressed in adult lingerie”.
As the officers were leaving Howe’s address they noticed other devices and a warrant was subsequently granted and the property searched.
Ten of the images were Category A - the most serious kind, 14 were Category B images and the remainder were in category C.
Sheriff Frazer told him: "Despite being on a community payback order, this has not had the desired effect. You have continued in defiance of the previous order by viewing images of children, some under the age of two.
"You are described in the report as a paedophile which is a strong description of you. There is no alternative to a custodial sentence."
Howe was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
