June 2015 Vale man had 700 child abuse images A LEVENVALE man has pleaded guilty after police found more than 700 child sexual abuse images on his laptop and phone. James McKenzie, 32, was living in a flat on Govan Drive when a police search on September 5 2014 uncovered the images and videos. Police officers from Dumbarton Police Office and the Cybercrime unit detained McKenzie who shared the flat with a friend, while they searched the flat. A black laptop belonging to McKenzie was found on his bed, at first look the laptop contained images of pre-teen and early teen children being abused. The police also confiscated a hard drive storage device and a white Samsung Galaxy mobile phone. McKenzie was detained under Section 14, and taken to Clydebank Police Office where he was interviewed and made no comment. Further examination of the laptop computer found 267 still images ranging from Level 1 to Level 5, and 10 videos featuring pre teen children. One video lasted for over two hours. The images had been accessed on July 18, 2014. The hard drive contained 598 still images and 11 videos which had been downloaded from February 2009 to September 20, 2010. There were 438 unique images accessible to the user. McKenzie’s mobile phone contained 103 images, 48 at Level 5, the highest rank on the Crown Office scale of abuse. Fiscal Depute Claire Healing said that McKenzie had used the file sharing site UTorrent to download the images, which is a popular method of downloading images for paedophiles. Solicitor Judith Reid stated that McKenzie pled guilty to the second charge that McKenzie ‘did take or permit to be taken, or make indecent images of children’ and asked for continued bail. Sheriff William Gallacher told McKenzie: “This is a serious charge and involves offences that clearly has an impact and victims and the court will view it that way.” “Given the nature of the crime, and the fact you have pleaded guilty – all sentencing options are available to the court.” Bail was continued for the court to gather a background report on McKenzie, who has previous convictions. McKenzie, since being released on bail on September 8, 2014, has moved to Edinburgh.
