Sex offender caught after girlfriend told police about child abuse images

Steven Perrie: Was jailed at The High Court in Edinburgh.

A serial sex offender has been jailed for eight years after his girlfriend reported him to police when she found a cache of indecent images.

A judge told Steven Perrie, 46, at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday that he was an ‘incorrigible user of child pornography’.

Lord Uist pointed out that Perrie had previously been jailed for similar offences and added: "These sentences clearly had no deterrent effect on you."

Perrie's first offence in 2004 involved a record breaking collection of 400,000 photos and 16,000 videos but following his early release he was convicted again in 2005.

The builder's latest offences involved him downloading a further 16,000 images and 100 hours of video footage and making 3438 images and 33 hours of footage available to share.

Some of the material was at the most extreme end of the scale for child pornography and had been sourced from Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Lord Uist told Perrie that the images depicted in his collection were "disgusting and repulsive".

The judge said: "This is a very bad case. Having regard to your previous convictions and the number and nature of the images involved I have concluded a severe sentence is called for in this case to satisfy the requirements of punishment and deterrence."

The court earlier heard that Perrie, who is on the sex offenders register for life, was in a relationship with Sharon Aiton who had noticed a DVD recorder in a bedroom drawer which she had not seen before.

She suspected that he might be viewing images and while he was working away went to his home at Strathmore Avenue, in Forfar, in Angus.

She put on one of the discs and saw images of a girl being abused and subsequently went to the police.

Officers searched the property and found a computer had been set up in the loft at the flat where there were more discs and a pack of children's pants.

Perrie was detained at Ardrossan, in Ayrshire, on May 13 last year as he returned from working in Arran.

He was released as inquiries continued but police returned to his home in June and found further DVDs. The court heard that the material seized featured girls and boys with more than 300 images and videos at the worst level.

Perrie admitted making indecent photos at his home between April 8 and June 9 last year and distributing such material between April 8 and May 8.

His counsel Susan Duff said a psychiatrist had assessed him as posing a medium risk of harm to the public and argued that he should not be given an Order for Lifelong Restriction.

She said there had been a "change in attitude" on the part of Perrie and accepted that he required help.

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