Glasgow resident had Inverness home raided by police
A 34-year-old Inverness man who admitted downloading almost 1000 still images and videos of children being abused or posing inappropriately will have to wait another three weeks before learning his fate.
Due to a police error, Darren Bennett's case was deferred until October 15 as Police Scotland had failed to submit a formal application to the court for a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) to be imposed as part of sentencing at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Bennett had appeared before Sheriff David Harvie who had previously called for a background report.
But fiscal depute Karen Poke told him that the proper procedure had not been followed by the police for the SHPO to be imposed and she would require more time to arrange the application and discover its conditions.
The court had previously been told that Bennett's then home in Kingsview Terrace was raided by police on November 19 last year while he was in it with his partner and his mobile phone was seized.
Ms Poke told Sheriff Harvie that after analysis, 515 accessible stills and five accessible videos were discovered. She added that 458 images were inaccessible.
"A total of 366 stills and four of the videos were Category A [the most graphic kind of abuse],” she said. “The run-time of the videos was a total of three minutes and 27 seconds."
The court heard that Bennett had now moved home to Duke Street in Glasgow.
He admitted downloading and possessing the material between January 30, 2023 and November 10, 2024.