Paedophile caught by investigators after sharing child abuse images from home WiFi

A paedophile who photographed himself repeatedly sexually abusing a child was caught after cybercrime investigators discovered he was using his home WiFi to share the content.

Alan Moir, 43, was brought to justice after the police received intelligence from the National Online Child Abuse Prevention (NOCAP) organisation.

On Tuesday, the High Court in Edinburgh heard how NOCAP had discovered that an Internet Protocol address had been sharing child abuse content.

Investigators discovered the IP address was linked to Moir’s home in St Cyrus, Aberdeenshire.

The court heard that investigators found that the explicit content was being shared from an app called Dropbox registered to an email address linked to Moir.

This information led to police obtaining a search warrant for Moir’s home.

Officers seized a mobile phone from Moir following a raid at his home on November 25, 2023.

They also found a second handset in the top drawer of a cabinet in the main bedroom of his property.

Upon examining the devices, officers found images of Moir sexually assaulting a girl who was aged eight to nine.

Prosecutor William Frain-Bell KC told Judge Lady Haldane that a total of 1,663 inaccessible still images of abuse were found on the handsets.

The story emerged after Moir pleaded guilty to a charge of sexually assaulting a young child on two occasions between January 1, 2018 and August 12, 2019. He also admitted a charge of permitting to take or make indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children between May 1, 2018 and November 15, 2023.

An IP address is a unique numerical identifier assigned to each device or network on a computer network using the Internet Protocol.

On a Wi-Fi network, your device gets an IP address from your router, which allows it to communicate on the network and the Internet.

Mr Frain-Bell told Lady Haldane that police arrested Moir and took him into custody following the raid at the home.

He added: “The accused was interviewed. He gave a no comment interview.”

During the police probe, officers found that Moir had taken indecent photos of another girl who was thought to be aged between 15 and 17 at the time.

Mr Frain-Bell said there were over 80 indecent images taken of Moir’s first victim and over 150 indecent “pseudo-photographs” of his second victim.

The advocate depute added: “There were over 1,400 indecent images of other young girls aged between one and 13 years of age.”

The court heard that Moir was a first offender who had worked in the oil and gas industry prior to his arrest.

Defence advocate Gillian Ross KC told Lady Haldane that since her client was a first offender, the court was obliged to obtain a report into Moir’s background.

She also asked for her client to be given bail.

Ms Ross added: “Mr Moir is aware that a custodial sentence is at the forefront of your ladyship’s mind – that said, he asked for bail.

“He has never been in trouble before. He has had employment in oil and gas industry.”

Lady Haldane refused to grant Moir bail and remanded him in custody. She also placed him on the Sex Offenders Register and called for a background report.

She added: “These offences are very serious indeed. The making of indecent images of children is a crime with real consequences and long lasting effects on those who the crime is perpetrated upon.

“You have asked for bail. However, given the gravity of the offences to which you have pleaded guilty to and the likely disposal, I have determined that you should be remanded in custody.”

Moir will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on April 8, 2025.