A shamed gun cop caught hoarding horrific child abuse images is living a stone’s throw from two nurseries and a primary school. Andrew Stevenson, 24, moved to Scotland after being spared jail in England, where he worked as a Ministry of Defence Police firearms officer.
Carlisle Crown Court heard he “has a sexual attraction to children as young as seven” and had downloaded “extreme sexual” films showing pre-pubescent kids. He downloaded the illegal images while stationed at the MoD base in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, but has since been sacked.
Now locals in Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, have raised concerns about him living so close to their schools. His home is in a quiet street with a number of young families, less than 500 yards from one nursery and within half a mile of another nursery and primary school.
He refused to speak when confronted, slamming the door in our reporter’s face. A mum out walking with her toddler son said: “It’s absolutely disgusting to find out that there’s a paedophile living just yards away.”
Another Kilmaurs resident, who has two young children, said: “I’m shocked. Obviously, he has to live somewhere but it’s not a good idea for him to be staying around so many children – kids around the same ages as the ones he was downloading illegal images of.”
Stevenson was caught with more than 160 indecent images of kids in a raid on his former home in Ulverston, Lancashire, in August last year. They seized an iPad and an iPhone and found 94 Category A images – the most extreme there are – 37 Category B images and 34 Category C images.
Stevenson pleaded guilty at Carlisle Crown Court in August to three offences of making indecent images.
In September, he was spared jail and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years and a three-year community order with 200 hours unpaid work. He was given a five-year sexual harm prevention order, has to attend a treatment programme and his computer equipment was confiscated.
An MoD spokesman said: “We condemn the actions of this former MoD police officer, who has been dismissed without notice.”
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