Eight men in court over child pornography charges

Eight men appeared in court today facing charges linked to making, possessing or distributing child pornography. One charge alleges a serious sexual assault on a boy who was only three months old at the time and another on an 18-month-old boy.

Another charge claims there was a conspiracy to use telephone contacts, web cameras and other means to make contact with youngsters to commit indecent acts.

After a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Lord Uist fixed a trial date for March next year.

In the dock today were Neil Strachan, 40, James Rennie, 37, Ross Webber, 26, Colin Slaven, 23, Craig Boath, 24, Neil Campbell, 45, John Milligan, 40, and John Murphy, 43.

The alleged offences are said to have been committed at addresses in Edinburgh, East Lothian, Glasgow and Dundee, including the base of LGBT Youth Scotland in Edinburgh, a national organisation which helps to promote inclusion for young gay people.

Strachan, Slaven and Rennie, all from Edinburgh, are accused of a series of offences, including possessing indecent images of children and carrying out serious sexual assaults on children.

Strachan and Slaven are also accused of destroying a laptop computer and pretending it had been stolen in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.

Webber, of North Berwick, East Lothian, Boath, of Dundee, and Campbell, Milligan and Murphy, all of Glasgow, are all facing child pornography charges.

Strachan, Rennie, Webber, Boath, Campbell, Milligan and Murphy are accused of acting together and with others to distribute or show "indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs" by swapping images.

Strachan, Rennie, Webber, Boath, Campbell and Milligan also deny conspiring together and with others to meet and participate in the commission of sexual offences against children.

The allegations listed in the conspiracy charge include logging on to websites, using a web camera to watch sexual abuse and listening over the telephone while sex acts were being committed.

Today the court heard that in preparing their case the Crown had needed to bring in experts from the United States to examine the photos.

Edinburgh News