SpindriftA quantity surveyor who uploaded sexually suggestive pictures of female colleagues in the workplace on social media has avoided jail.
Neil McDougall, 58, surreptitiously snapped 35 images on a company mobile phone between January 2021 and March 2024.
The dad-of-one posted the pictures on Twitter with sexualised captions and hashtags.
McDougall was sacked from a Glasgow-based construction consultant firm after an ex-colleague found the social media page and recognised the victims.
McDougall was later caught with a further 147 indecent images of children as young as one on his mobile phone.
McDougall pled guilty in May at Glasgow Sheriff Court to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
He also admitted possession of indecent photographs of children.
Sheriff Iain Fleming ordered McDougall to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work at Wednesday’s sentencing.
He was put under supervision and placed on the sex offenders register for two years.
The sheriff said: “I am not going to send you to custody.
“You let yourself and your family down in a significant and prolonged way.
“Look at yourself in the mirror – it doesn’t get worse than this.
“The fact your family stands by you is not only a tribute to them but it’s time you owned this behaviour and deal with it.
“It is sad to see a man of your age and background in the courts facing charges like this.
“What is a greater damage is the harm you imposed on your victims.
“You tried to distance yourself from the behaviour during this process – it’s time to face up and accept it.”
The court heard that McDougall’s former colleague noticed an account on social media app Telegram.
The account – which used McDougall’s phone number – had a username which linked to a Twitter page on it.
The man found that the Twitter page included sexualised images of two of his former colleagues.
Prosecutor Josh Dowie said: “It was clear that the pictures were taken without the knowledge or consent in the workplace.”
A number of examples of the images were read to the court.
One image of an employee had the caption “Really love the autumn, boots are being worn around the office” with a devil and a kiss emoji alongside it.
Another picture had the caption “Hot or not?” with a devil and a love heart emoji.
Mr Dowie said: “The images were pornographic in nature.”
It was found that one of the images had been viewed 400,000 while others were in the tens of thousands.
Comments from unknown users were also noted below the posts.
The hearing was further told that McDougall had uploaded a video of himself in the office bathroom performing a sex act with a pair of high heels.
These were later confirmed to belong to one of his colleagues who kept them under her desk.
The matter was reported to the police and McDougall’s phone was seized.
A total of 33 still images and ten videos were found – 35 of which were of women in the office without their knowledge.
Three of the images were of McDougall performing a sex act.
McDougall was also discovered with 147 still and moving sexual images of children aged between one and 14 years old.
The matter was reported to the police and a partner at the firm and McDougall was spoken to.
He stated to the partner that he “had a problem.”
John Kilcoyne, defending, told the sentencing that his client is not working after he lost his job due to the incident.
The lawyer added: “He accepts the position regarding indecent images and he is disgusted with himself – he is shown insight into his offending.
“He can’t understand why he has done this – he accepts he has a problem and wants to deal with that.
“His brother is a former police officer and is in court with him, he has a daughter who is aware of it as does his mother.”
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