A man has been sentenced to jail after child abuse images were discovered on his mobile phones, despite his initial claim of not knowing the passwords. Andrew Buchan, 36, pleaded guilty to possessing hundreds of indecent photographs and videos between July 2015 and February 2021 at his residence in Glasgow Road, Strathaven. The investigation involved specialist officers who spent two-and-a-half years attempting to unlock the devices to access the graphic material.
At Hamilton Sheriff Court, it was revealed that Buchan, who has no prior convictions, had moved to a different undisclosed address since the incident. The court heard that on February 1, 2021, when officers executed a search warrant at Buchan’s home, he expressed distress, stating, “My life is over. I’ve been on a downward spiral since I was 11.” The accused initially claimed not to know the passwords for the two iPhones seized by the authorities during the search.
Despite the challenges in accessing the content on the phones due to password protection, cybercrime officers managed to unlock the devices on August 10, 2023. They uncovered a disturbing collection of child sexual exploitation material, primarily involving females aged one year to 15. The recovered material included 306 indecent photos, with 66 classified in the most severe category, along with 217 videos depicting child sex abuse, of which around 40 were deemed to be in the worst category.
Subsequently, Buchan was arrested on September 22 the following year and appeared in court to face his charges. Sheriff Colin Dunipace sentenced him to 10 months in jail and ordered him to be placed on the sex offenders’ register for a decade. The severity of the images discovered and the nature of the offences led to the substantial term of imprisonment for Buchan, despite his lack of previous criminal record.