David William Bruce

A Lerwick man, David William Bruce, faced Lerwick Sheriff Court after admitting to possessing a vast collection of indecent images of children. The case, reported by Shetland News on 7 June 2018, revealed that Bruce had stored nearly 50,000 such images and videos on multiple devices over an almost ten-year period.

Bruce, aged 57 and residing in Voderview, Lerwick, pleaded guilty to a charge of taking or permitting to be taken indecent photographs of children. The offences spanned from August 2008 to 25 October 2017. During a police investigation, officers discovered the material on six laptops, 13 mobile phones, and seven memory cards. Of the 48,894 images, over 1,000 were categorised as the most extreme, involving very young children. Procurator Duncan Mackenzie described some of the images as 'the very worst imaginable' during the court hearing.

The court heard that an additional 547,373 images on Bruce's computers were deemed borderline indecent. Mackenzie noted that Bruce had acquired 'significant expertise' in locating and downloading these materials, organising them systematically into archives over the lengthy period. Importantly, there was no evidence that Bruce had shared the images with anyone else.

• Devices seized: 6 laptops, 13 mobile phones, 7 memory cards
• Total indecent images: 48,894
• Extreme category images: 1,057
• Borderline images: 547,373

Sheriff Ian Cruickshank deferred sentencing until 4 July 2018 to allow for the preparation of a criminal justice social work report. In the interim, Bruce was granted continued bail and added to the sex offenders' register. This case highlights the ongoing efforts by Police Scotland to combat child sexual exploitation through digital forensics and court proceedings in remote areas like Shetland.