Falkirk sheriff hears child porn sex offender's relations with his wife are 'not good' at the moment

Scott Kerrigan, 48, had earlier pleaded guilty to taking – or permitting to be taken – indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children at his home between June 3, 2018 and March 8, 2022.

The court heard it had been “an extremely difficult period” for first offender Kerrigan and his family and he was currently staying at his parents’ address as relations with his wife were “not good” at the moment.

It was stated the majority of the images fell into the “lower category” and Kerrigan would be “very unlikely” to appear before the courts again.

Sheriff Maryam Labaki took into account the number of images, the fact most of them were category C and the period of time the offence was committed over.

She said: “I’m off the view you need to be supervised to prevent any other offending.”

Sheriff Labaki placed Kerrigan on a supervised community payback order for three years with the conduct requirement he engage with the Moving Forward Making Changes programme.

He was also ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid work within that time period and placed on a restriction of liberty order, meaning he must remain in his home from 8pm to 7am for the next 12 months.

Kerrigan was also made subject to the reporting requirements of the sex offenders register for three years.