Sex offender banned from having any contact with children

Graham Brown was caught with a collection of child abuse videos depicting children being sexually assaulted by adults following a police raid on his former home on Musselburgh’s Balcarres Road last year.

After his arrest, Brown, 61, moved into a new property on the town’s Watt’s Close but was last month forced to move again after residents found out about his conviction and organised several protests outside his home.

READ MORE: Child sex offender Graham Brown to move from Musselburgh flat following protests

Brown returned to Edinburgh Sheriff Court for sentencing on Monday after he had previously pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children between October 2020 and August last year.

Sheriff Chris Dickson said Brown had committed “a serious offence” by downloading the images but accepted “the number of videos is limited”.

Brown was placed on the sex offenders’ register and under the supervision of a social work team for two years.

The sheriff also issued a conduct requirement which saw Brown banned from having any contact with children under the age of 17 without prior approval.

And he also cannot possess any internet device without permission.

Brown was also ordered to remain within his new home address in Bilston, Midlothian, between 7pm and 7am for the next 100 days.

Fiscal depute Callum Thomson told the court that police raided Brown’s former home at Balcarres Road at about 6.40pm on August 30 last year.

During the search, officers discovered a laptop that held 14 child abuse videos including 11 rated at category A – the most serious end of the scale – along with three at category B.

All the images were said to have been accessible to the user and cyber crime analysis showed Brown had last viewed the videos on January 6 last year.

Brown pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children between October 22, 2020, and August 30 last year.