AN ELGIN MAN has appeared in court for a third time in under a year facing charges of possessing indecent photographs of a 15-year-old.
Matthew Watson appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court from custody in Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison on Thursday and admitted being in possession of the photographs or pseudo-photographs between September 14 and December 23 last year.
The court was told that Watson had completed a 42-day jail term in December for indecent behaviour and communication with a child – and landed back in prison just weeks later, serving a four months for further communication with a minor.
It was after his release in April that he was re-arrested for the offence that landed him in court this week.
In his defence solicitor Matthew O’Neil said that the nature of the charge was “rather unusual” as the images found in Watson’s possession were sent to him by the complainer in the previous two cases.
Accepting a defence petition that a Community Payback Order (CPO) was appropriate, Sheriff John Halley told Watson he hoped the sentence “meaningfully deals with the nature of your offence in the hope of reducing the risk to children in the public interest”.
Watson was sentenced to 240 hours unpaid work and placed under supervision for three years. He will remain on the sex offenders list for the duration of the supervision order.