Court / Supervision for teenager who downloaded indecent images

A TEENAGER who downloaded indecent images and videos of children has been placed under supervision and ordered to carry out unpaid work.

Eighteen year old Evan Moncrieff was found to have more than two hours of indecent videos on a mobile phone after a police search in August 2024.

Moncrieff, from Tingwall, also admitted having 46 indecent images of children on the iPhone, ten of which were category A – the most serious categorisation.

His offending came to light after co-workers raised concerns about accounts Moncrieff had been following on social media, and the content they were posting.

Moncrieff previously admitted “taking, or permitting to be taken”, indecent images of children between 6 April and 27 August 2024.

He also admitted being in possession of indecent images of children between 13 June and 27 August 2024.

All of the offending took place when Moncrieff was just 17.

Defence agent Ellen MacDonald said Moncrieff had received a “broadly positive” report from social workers after his sentence was deferred for background reports.

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Moncrieff had become “isolated from his peer group” at the time of his offending, and was “attempting to fit in with a new group”.

That had led to a chain of events which saw police find up to 11 category A videos and 10 category A still images of sexual abuse material on two iPhones during a search.

Lerwick Sheriff Court heard last month that Moncrieff had been talking to an individual on the messaging app Telegram, and had accessed 19 of the videos through that person.

MacDonald said Moncrieff “realised what he was doing was wrong” and added this was “not a victimless crime”.

She said her client described it himself as the “stupidest thing he’s ever done”, and as “dream-shattering and life-changing”.

Moncrieff had been in the process of applications to be an RAF pilot, she explained, and was at the “last stage of recruitment” before his arrest.

He had also lost two other jobs locally as a result of the charges.

MacDonald said her client has “had to grow up quickly”, and that he had been marked down as having a “low risk of reoffending”.

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said that Moncrieff was a first offender, and pointed out that he was only 17 at the time of the offending.

He placed him under supervision for a period of 12 months and ordered him to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work within the next six months.

Due to Moncrieff’s age at the time of the offences, he will not be subject to sexual offender notification requirements.