April 2022

Serviceman had indecent images of children

A soldier caught with hundreds of indecent images of children and almost an hour of video footage has been ordered to do unpaid community work.

James Milton was also placed on the Sex Offender’s Register for three years after admitting possessing the material.

The 34-year-old escaped a jail sentence at Inverness Sheriff Court on Thursday 

Milton was also told he must take part in a sex offender’s rehabilitation programme, provide details of his electronic devices to his supervisors, allow the police to inspect them and not delete his search history.

An earlier court heard that his Kinloss barracks accommodation was raided by police in September 2020.

A total of 369 stills were recovered, several of them and a coupld of videos were graded in the most serious category A showing the rape of young girls

Fiscal depute Martina Eastwood told the court that Milton was stationed away on the day a search warrant was executed and it was his wife that answered the door to officers.

The court heard that 17 devices were seized during the search, four of which were retained for inquiries, including a hard drive with the registered owner ‘James’.

Following the search, Milton was brought back from his posting.

Ms Eastwood added: “The Army arranged his return to Kinloss Barracks.”

Milton was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work for the community and was placed under the supervision of social workers for the next three years.