May 2010 Former school board member caught with sickening stash of child porn A FORMER school board member who was caught with a sickening stash of child porn was yesterday banned from having contact with youngsters under the age of 17. Alan Smith was once a pillar of the community as he served on the school board at St Andrew’s Academy in Paisley and worked as the managing director of a rehabilitation centre for alcoholics. But his reputation now lies in tatters after cops found thousands of photographs of children on his laptop computer. The 53-year-old pervert Smith narrowly avoided a jail sentence after admitting child porn charges at Paisley Sheriff Court. However, his name has been placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for three years and he has been banned from having internet access. Smith has also been told he is not to have accessto children under the age of 17 except when previous consent has been obtained. In addition, he has been ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community and will have to attend weekly one-to-one support sessions. The court had heard how former salesman Smith, who worked with a company supplying education training packages, had been under extreme pressure to attract customers at a time when trading was difficult. He sank into such a state of depression that he began to trawl the internet looking for “images of mature women” but got sucked into looking at indecent pictures of children which were sent to him through a Google Hello chatroom. Smith went on to stockpile a library that contained more than 4,000 photographs of children and ended up exchanging them with others. The dad-of-two was finally snared when officers from the Metropolitan Police monitored suspicious website activity and sent his details to colleagues at Strathclyde Police. A warrant was sought and his home in Anchor Crescent, Paisley, was raided in June last year. The court was told that, long before that date, Smith’s wife had discovered some of the images on his computer and, after they had full and frank discussions about his activities, he had deleted all of the images in question. It was only through the use of specialist equipment that police were able to retrieve them from the computer’s hard drive. After the police had swooped, Smith was co-operative and told those investigating that he had set out to source images of mature women and felt uncomfortable at first when pictures of children began to appear. He maintained he had deleted them but admitted he had also forwarded some of those he received. A detailed forensic examination of the laptop computer taken from his home revealed communications which had passed between the accused and another chatroom user known as ‘Babylover1.’ By that stage, Smith was asking for pictures of ‘yng’ – understood to be shorthand for ‘young’ subjects. When questioned about his particular needs and pressed to state if he sought “girls, boys, newborn or one-yr-old”, he replied: “All”. At an earlier court hearing, Smith pleaded guilty to distributing or showing indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children between June and November 2006 and having possession of small number of similar material at his home in June last year. Sheriff James Spy had called for background reports, as well as taking the opportunity to view some of the images to assess the level of gravity involved. When Smith returned to court yesterday to learn his fate, defence agent Colin Williamson stressed that his client was a first offender who had a previously unblemished reputation in the community. The lawyer added that his client had sought treatment for clinical depression in 2005 and 2007 and was subsequently made redundant. Sheriff Spy was presented with various testimonials, mostly from supportive family members. Smith, it was stated, had been assessed as posing a low risk of re-offending and openly admitted he felt shame and disgust at his behaviour. Mr Williamson said: “He now appreciates that those with whom he interacted on the internet were the lowest of the low who are people with sick fantasies and he still struggles to understand why he became involved in this activity.” Sheriff Spy told Smith that he had “perhaps only just” reached the conclusion that custody could be avoided. Taking account of the underlying health issues, Smith’s previous good character, the limited period of activity, his early admission of guilt, the references presented, the significant support of his wife and family and the contents of reports presented to the court, he was persuaded that any risks posed could be managed in the community. However, Sheriff Spy put in place a stringent programme of counselling, support and supervision linked to a three-year probation order. He warned Smith that his progress will be monitored with regular reviews and that any failure to comply would result in automatic imprisonment.