Alan McDonald jailed over indecent images of children
A 38-year-old North Lanarkshire man is starting a six year jail term following his second conviction for downloading indecent images of children.
Alan McDonald was caught with 258,000 images and 758 movie clips of children being abused after police raided his flat in Motherwell in August 2011.
He was placed indefinitely on the sex offenders register and ordered to be monitored for two years on his release.
The High Court in Glasgow heard he was jailed for a similar offence in 2002.
Passing sentence, judge Lord Pentland told him: "It is of particular concern that you have a previous conviction at sheriff and jury level for the possession of indecent images of children and served a prison sentence for that offence.
"Even that has not served to deter you from continuing to offend in this way, indeed the present offence represents a significant escalation of your pattern of offending."
The judge added that each image represents "serious abuse" of children and those who view such material share some of the responsibility for that abuse "by creating and sustaining a demand".
Lord Pentland added: "The court will impose a substantial sentence to mark the gravity of the conduct and society's abhorrence for it."
The court heard some of the material seized from McDonald's flat was at the worst end of the scale used to grade such material.
McDonald made no comment when later questioned about the find, but admitted once being attracted to children.
The 38-year-old was jailed for four months in 2002 after downloading 600 indecent images while working as a volunteer with children at a project run by North Lanarkshire Council.
McDonald admitted having made 600 obscene pictures of young girls by using a council computer at Kirkshaws Neighbourhood House in Coatbridge, over three months at the end of 2000.
He put them onto a floppy disk and then transferred them to his own computer at home in Coatbridge.