Pair spared jail for downloading indecent images of children

Two business partners of a software company are have been spared jail for downloading indecent images of children at the house they shared.

Iain Kidd, 29, and Fillip Hannisdal, 31, were caught when police were tipped off that pictures of children were being distributed.

A search warrant was granted for the house in Hillington where both men lived with Kidd’s parents, and computer equipment and storage devices were taken.

A forensic search by the cyber experts revealed Kidd and Hannisdal each had a haul of hundreds of illegal pictures of children and images of beastiality.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court Kidd admitted charges of downloading and possessing indecent images of children between July 2005 and June 2017, and a charge of possessing extreme pornographic images between April 2007 and August 2017.

Hannisdal, from Belshill, North Lanarkshire, admitted committing the same three charges between September 2014 and August 2017.

they were both given three-year community payback orders with the conditions they will be supervised in the community and be of good behaviour, as well as carry out a programme for sex offenders.

Kidd and Hannisdal were also given tags for six months to stay in their homes between 7pm and 7am.

The court heard the pair are business partners for an internet business and at the time both lived at the address with Kidd’s parents and partner.

They co-own Dragonbyte Technologies Ltd, a software business.

On their website it's described as "The leading provider of vBulletin software addons since 2010".

Procurator fiscal depute Derek Buchanan said: “In August 2017 Police Scotland received credible and reliable evidence that indecent images of children were being downloaded and distributed from the accused’s home address.”

They searched the property and took a number of pieces of computer equipment and hard drives away from each Kidd and Hannisdal’s rooms to be examined.

It revealed Kidd had almost 984 still images and 496 moving, and 7689 pictures of extreme pornography.

While Hannisdal had 170 still pictures, 50 moving and 163 images which the court heard depicted sexual activity involving people and animals.

Both men had vile pictures and videos of children ranging from category A - the most serious - to C.

When they were cautioned and charged by police neither made a reply and both gave no comment interviews.