Collected thousands of indecent images of children.

Lerwick Man Faces Sentencing for Child Pornography Possession

A Lerwick man, David William Bruce, has admitted to possessing tens of thousands of indecent images of children on his computers and will be sentenced early next month.

Bruce, residing at Voderview, pleaded guilty to a charge of taking or permitting to be taken indecent photographs of children over a period spanning almost ten years, from August 2008 to October 25, 2017.

During a hearing on Thursday at Lerwick Sheriff Court, it was revealed that police officers had discovered nearly 50,000 indecent images and videos stored on Bruce's devices, including six laptops, 13 mobile phones, and seven memory cards.

Out of the 48,894 images, over 1,000 were categorized as the most extreme, depicting very young children. Procurator Duncan Mackenzie described some of the images as being of the "very worst imaginable."

Mackenzie further informed the court that an additional 547,373 images found on Bruce's computers were considered borderline. He emphasized that the 57-year-old Bruce had developed significant expertise in finding and downloading these images over an extended period, systematically organizing them into archives.

While Mackenzie stated there was no indication that Bruce had shared the images with anyone else, Sheriff Ian Cruickshank deferred the sentencing until July 4th to allow for the preparation of a criminal justice social work report. Bruce was granted continued bail and placed on the sex offenders register.