Hamilton man convicted of child porn

Feb 11 2010

A BURNBANK man was this week found guilty of taking indecent photographs of a young girl over a number of years in the loft of his home.

Peter King Paton was convicted of possessing indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children between August 16, 2002, and October 10, 2007.

The 56-year-old was also found guilty of taking, or allowing the taking of, indecent photographs of children between June 18, 1994, and June 17, 2002.

On Monday afternoon at Hamilton Sheriff Court, the jury took just over an hour to find Paton guilty by a unanimous verdict.

Last week, the court was told Paton, formerly of Mayfield Road, met his victim - who cannot be named for legal reasons - through her mother’s attendance at a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He then took indecent photographs of the girl, who was 10 or 11 years old at the time, and has learning difficulties.

The photographs were taken in a loft at Paton’s home while he was baby-sitting the girl.

Discs containing 42 indecent images of children - taken by Paton - and religious documents were found in the pervert’s home.

Cops seized the discs during a search at his house on October 10, 2007.

The court was told that, when questioned about them, he replied that they were merely back-up discs and computer programmes.

However, when examined by experts, vile images featuring a young girl engaged in solo sex acts were found.

Paton himself gave evidence at the trial, denying any wrongdoing.

He told defence solicitor Gerry Devanney that he suffered from clinical depression and often had suicidal thoughts.

He claimed that he used to babysit his victim and her siblings for her mother, with whom he had become close friends through the church, and classed the victim - now in her early 20s - as a daughter.

He also suggested that the allegations had been made against him after a fall out with the victim and her mother over money.

However, the former overhead crane driver denied that he ever took photos of his victim, and suggested that the discs belonged to the family themselves.

When fiscal depute Louise Beattie questioned him, he said of his victim: “It’s how she is, she makes allegations against people. I’m not the first.”

However, Ms Beattie replied: “You took these photos. You have been getting away with it for years and now you are attempting to mislead this jury.”

When the images found on Paton’s discs were shown to the court, defence witness Professor Sue Black, an expert in human anatomy, explained that the low quality of the images meant there was uncertainty over the age of the girl in the photos.

However, she did tell Ms Beattie that, in some of the pictures, little development of breasts suggested that the picture was not of a post-pubescent female.

She added that while she could not say it was the victim, neither could she rule it out.

Following the guilty verdict, Sheriff Joyce Powrie deferred sentence on Paton until March 10 for a range of reports.

Bail was continued meantime.