July 2023

Pervert software engineer snared with more than 32,000 indecent images of children

A senior software engineer was caught with more than 32,500 indecent images of children.

George Reid, 50, was snared with the sick haul at his parents’ home in Glasgow’s Mount Vernon on December 29, 2021.

The city’s Sheriff Court heard police obtained a search warrant for the property.

A search recovered a hard drive from Reid’s bedroom.

He told officers that the hard drive belonged to him and no-one else had access to it.

Prosecutor Emma Baker said: “Officers from Cybercrime examined it and the device showed images of child sexual abuse and exploitation.”

Reid was arrested before a thorough examination of the hard drive took place.

Miss Baker told the court there were 30,297 still images and 2241 moving images of female children aged between seven and 15-years-old.

All the images were accessible to Reid and kept in an “organised folder.”

The images were stored from November 2012 until the search.

Reid – a first offender – pleaded guilty to possession of indecent images of children.

Urfan Dar, defending, told the court that he is employed as a full-time senior software engineer.

The lawyer added: “He is aware that the custodial threshold has been exceeded.”

Sentence was deferred pending background reports until next month by Sheriff Joan Kerr who granted him bail.

Reid was put on the sex offenders register meantime.