Update: Now living in Bonkle Road, Newmains 2012 Child sexual images Offender Sentenced A LANARKSHIRE dad who cut and pasted the faces of young girls he knew onto seedy porn photographs has been jailed. Gerard McLaughlin (47) cut the faces of five different girls from legitimate photographs, taken when they were aged between 13 and 16, and superimposed them onto pictures of naked adult bodies using Photoshop. He downloaded more than 14,000 indecent pictures of other children. McLaughlin pleaded guilty last month to possessing indecent photographs, and to making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children. He was back at Hamilton Sheriff Court yesterday (Wednesday) to be sentenced. His lawyer told the court that once police had discovered the photographs, McLaughlin actually volunteered information about who the girls were in the ‘photoshopped’ pictures. He said McLaughlin did this to “reduce the distress” for the girls involved. He also said that these doctored images formed only a small part of the total haul of pictures. There were 29 of them among the thousands of images seized at his home. He added that the other photographs featuring unknown children were mostly level one, which is the lowest category for such pictures. Only three of the pictures were level two. McLaughlin was described as being a “responsible, law-abiding citizen,” who had a “loving marriage” and “two children who are a credit to him.” His lawyer added that the case had resulted in McLaughlin’s employment being suspended and that he had needed to call police to his home after relatives of victims turned up there. He said he would be very surprised if McLaughlin put himself in this position again, although Sheriff Ray Small pointed out that McLaughlin had, in fact, been assessed as medium risk of reoffending. Statements from the girls in the ‘photoshopped’ pictures were read out in court last month. One had reported failing exams as a result of finding out about these offences while another was having trouble sleeping, and a third having trouble with forming relationships with boyfriends. McLaughlin’s lawyer said he appreciated how exposed and vulnerable they must have felt after finding out about these offences. However, Sheriff Small said that there had been a “gross breach of trust” and because of the “gravity” of the charges, he felt a prison sentence would be most appropriate. He sentenced McLaughlin, formerly of Newarthill, near Motherwell, to nine months in prison. He will also be on licence for three years following his release and will have to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.