February 2014 Airdrie man jailed after downloading hundreds of child abuse images An Airdrie man who downloaded hundreds of sick indecent images of children as young as four has been jailed for 13 months. David MacDonald, 25, of Sycamore Drive, Craigneuk, pled guilty at Airdrie Sheriff Court to “taking, permitting to be taken or making almost 600 indecent images of children” at his home between September 2012 and January 2013. The labourer and kitchen fitter denied other charges of possessing indecent images of children and of sharing them with others and also hiding a hard drive unit behind a wheelie bin in an attempt to hide evidence with the intention of perverting the course of justice. His not-guilty pleas were accepted by prosecutors. Fiscal depute Agnes Meek told the court: “Police, acting on intelligence that indecent images of children were being downloaded from a computer at MacDonald’s address, went to his home and seized a Toshiba laptop which was found to contain 591 images of young girls aged between four and 10. “When interviewed by police he told them he only did it because he was curious.” Defence agent Paul Belardo said MacDonald would agree to sign a disclaimer to the laptop for it to be destroyed. Mr Belardo told the court on Tuesday: “He is single but in a long-term relationship and his girlfriend is in court today. “He is also a college student and studying to become a chef. This conviction will have severe consequences for his entire life. “He has been described as a medium risk of reoffending.” Sheriff Frank Pieri told MacDonald: “Only a custodial sentence is appropriate in this case as a significant number of the images were at level four, one of the worst kind of vulnerable young children being abused. “You will go to prison for 13 months, which I have reduced from 16 months because of your early plea. On release you will be put on licence as part of an extended sentence for 18 months.” MacDonald was also put on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.