DOUGLAS BELL OF GLENROTHES ESCAPES JAIL DESPITE LINK TO OVER 1300 CHILD INDECENT IMAGES
In June 2014, a man from Glenrothes, Douglas Bell, avoided imprisonment despite being found with more than 1,300 indecent images of children on his computer.Bell, residing at Cadham Court, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court where Sheriff Grant McCulloch told him he was “on the cusp” of a jail sentence.
Bell claimed he was an internet hacker who targeted paedophiles’ computers to disrupt their activities.
The 37-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to downloading the abusive images, which were found on devices at his parents' home in Windygates, during an investigation that uncovered a total of 1,328 images and seven videos.
Bell stated that these images had not been downloaded for “sexual excitement”.
Sheriff McCulloch emphasized the gravity of Bell’s actions, remarking, “I trust that it has got through to you that being the end user is only half of the story.
Without end users there would be no images.
The fact remains that people like you are the reason that this disgusting trade exists.” While Bell, a former IT technician, initially claimed he was trying to locate genuine paedophiles to hack into their systems and crash their computers using Distributed Denial of Service attacks, these assertions were dismissed at an earlier hearing.
He also admitted he had to download the images to identify and hack the original owners, but conceded that his methods were unsuccessful.
Sheriff McCulloch warned Bell that a custodial sentence could be imposed if he appeared before him again.
Instead, Bell was placed under supervised probation, and his name was added to the sex offenders register for three years.
