>>22544022>Continued (below text taken from an old article)A Montrose man who tried to convince a jury that his brother was responsible for the stash of child abuse and “extreme porn” images found on his computer today (Thursday) dodged a jail term.
Andrew Duncan’s home that he shared with his parents and siblings was raided by police last year following a tip-off.
Computers belonging to him and his toy shop worker brother Steven Duncan were seized by police.
Officers found a large haul of child abuse images on Steven’s computers – an offence that last month saw him sentenced to a community payback order and placed on the sex offenders register after he admitted his guilt.
But Andrew Duncan denied any involvement in downloading and possessing the indecent material found on his computers.
Forensic examiners also found file cleansing software often used by internet sex offenders to cover their trails on his computer.
Duncan claimed he had it as part of an “ethical hacking” course he was taking at Abertay University.
Instead he lodged a special defence incriminating his 29-year-old brother – despite evidence suggesting some of the files had been downloaded to Andrew Duncan’s computer in his bedroom at 2am on one night.
Summing up the case for the jury at Dundee Sheriff Court, fiscal depute Vicki Bell said Duncan “became obnoxious” while he gave evidence and added “he didn’t seem fussed at all” over the “serious charges”.
She said: “That’s not normal.”
Miss Bell added: “He told police in interview that Steven had not had access to his computer for a long time – and certainly not in 2015.
“Indecent images are found to have been previewed on the computer in 2015 and that’s been put to him by police and he can’t explain it.
“There is only one explanation, the Crown says – it was him, unless he is suggesting his brother was sitting in his room at 2.15am watching child porn.”
