LIAM THORNBER PERTHSHIRE ROOFER ON SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY AFTER CHILD ABUSE IMAGE FINDINGS
A roofer from Perthshire was found to be in possession of a concealed collection of child abuse videos, featuring victims as young as four years old.Liam Thornber, aged 21, was placed on the Sex Offenders Register following his appearance at Perth Sheriff Court, where he admitted to storing obscene files on his phone over a ten-week period.
Thornber, who has a prior record of driving offences, accessed these images and clips via the Kik messenger app.
The court was informed that many of the videos were of the most graphic nature.
Police acted after receiving a tip-off and carried out a raid on Thornber’s home in Comrie.
Fiscal depute Andrew Harding explained, “The accused was 20 years old at the time of the offence.
He was a self-employed roofer but is now unemployed.” He continued, “On March 1, 2022, Police Scotland received intelligence indicating that indecent images of children were being stored at the accused’s residence.
A warrant was obtained, and at 8:30 am on March 20, officers arrived at the address.” Liam Thornber was at the door and allowed police inside.
Officers described seizing a black mobile phone from him, which upon forensic analysis revealed the Kik Messenger app with access to group chats containing child abuse images.
The prosecution stated that all the illicit material was sourced from the Kik app.
Cybercrime specialists identified 20 videos, with a total runtime of over 18 minutes.
Many of these were classified as the most serious Category A, depicting boys and girls as young as five.
An additional 19 photos showing children aged four to 12 posing in sexually explicit ways were also recovered.
Thornber’s solicitor, David Holmes, requested a deferment of sentencing pending the preparation of background reports and asked the court to continue bail.
Sheriff Jennifer Bain KC advised Thornber that his conviction’s nature requires him to register his name and address with police under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, emphasizing that failure to do so would constitute an offence.
In addition to this charge, it was revealed that Thornber was disqualified from driving in 2022 after he caused a crash into a private garden in Crieff’s Kincardine Road while intoxicated.
He was three times over the legal alcohol limit during that incident and had a prior disqualification following a high-speed police chase.
