Perth SNP councillor scandal

[AlanG]

An SNP councillor from Perth was caught with kiddie porn on his council machine, the offences happenned when he was a councillor. Will this scandal sway the SNP voters of Perth back to the Tories?

Porn-charge Perthshire councillor found guilty

A FORMER Perth and Kinross councillor’s reputation lies in ruins after he was found guilty yesterday of child pornography and drug charges.

At the conclusion of his trial, 44-year-old Iain Hunter of Gallowhill, Crieff, was told that he would also be placed on the sex offenders’ register and face an assessment of the risk he poses.

The former SNP councillor for Crieff South had denied that between November 19, 2001, and October 11, 2002, in council offices in Perth High Street and at his home, he made indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children. He had further denied a second charge alleging he had cannabis at his home on October 11, 2002.

The former election agent to Perth MSP Roseanna Cunningham voluntarily stood down after police mounted a probe into alleged internet pornography on his home and office computers. Having been found guilty of the charges yesterday, Hunter now has to wait until February 18 to hear the sentence for his fall from grace.

During the trial the court heard that concerns initially arose at Perth and Kinross Council when it was discovered that the user name ikhunter had accessed “unsuitable” sites.

Detective Constable Ian Ross (47) told the court yesterday that computer user logs were handed over to the police detailing internet sites picked up by the council’s cyber patrol software package which blocks access to certain sites.

He agreed with procurator fiscal Dr David Griffiths that the logs showed “sites which were not exactly what one might expect councillors to be looking at.”

Many of the internet sites made reference to boys in the web addresses.

DC Ross said that on October 11, 2002, he attended at Hunter’s home address in Crieff armed with a search warrant. The police removed computer equipment and during a search Hunter, a chef in Crieff, handed over a box containing a brown resinous substance and two reefers which he told officers were cannabis.

At police headquarters in Perth on the same day, in a videotaped interview shown to the court, Hunter admitted having accessed adult pornography.

Asked about child pornography he said items had “popped up” and appeared in his Email.

Dr Griffiths said that the first mention of the MSN search engine in the interview was made by Hunter himself.

DC ROSS agreed that a report subsequently revealed that MSN had been used for “extensive searching” for child pornography.

Questioned in relation to child pornography, Hunter replied, “I have looked obviously, the evidence is there,” said Dr Griffiths.

Earlier yesterday Dr Stephen Green, who works in the field of paediatrics at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, was called as an expert witness.

He was shown six different images of naked males and concluded that in three cases—he could not be categoric in the other ones—the subjects were under 16.

At the end of the Crown evidence, Hunter’s solicitor Branislav Sudjic said the defence would not be calling any witnesses.

Summing up, Dr Griffiths said the evidence was “clear and unchallenged that the two computers contained many indecent images of children.”

He said the majority of the images were of naked, or partly-clad males, engaged in homosexual acts or being sexually abused.

“I submit that the Crown has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Iain Hunter was searching for child pornography,” he said.

Dr Griffiths concluded it would be “fatuous” to suggest that Hunter had inadvertently come across any of these sites.

Mr Sudjic said although the evidence from experts earlier in the trial had differed, one had said that when someone surfed the internet there was the possibility that when a site was accessed, the contents would be saved to the hard disc—without the person knowing the precise details.

“There is a large number of files created by the computer system over which the operator has no control,” maintained the solicitor.

If his client had printed out pictures or saved them to floppy disc there would have been no defence, but he had not done so, he added.

At the conclusion of the case Sheriff Waldron said that she found him guilty of the charge relating to indecent pictures, but only in relation of the three spoken of by Dr Green.

She said the Crown had spoken of many hundreds of images, but she said she was not satisfied “beyond reasonable doubt” of this.

On the drug charge, Sheriff Waldron found Hunter guilty.

Sentence was deferred until next month for reports. Various computer items were forfeited.

[6months of evrything]

Originally Posted by Alan G

An SNP councillor from Perth was caught with kiddie porn on his council machine, the offences happenned when he was a councillor. Will this scandal sway the SNP voters of Perth back to the Tories?

tories??? come on alan let everyne know your views on labour

i didnt know whether this was hush hush council spek or if it was public knowledge ya know cos i found out from my old man

geez tho man this guy has made some dumb decisions in his life,

first joining the snp then being dumb enough to download kiddie filth to his council pc what a nob!

[My First Kev]

Tories!

their candidate was probably in the photos he downloaded.

on a more serious note i don't know if this would sway people away from the party if they replaced the guy.