 |
|
The court heard that Harris was caught after a
colleague saw footage on his memory stick
|
Paedophile
Michael Harris who filmed his abuse of two young girls told the police “just
take me out and shoot me.” Harris preyed on his victims, one aged only
two-years-old, at his family home in Dunfermline, Fife, UK.
BBC reports the
60-year-old account manager for an electrical firm was caught when a work
friend found an abusive video clip on a memory stick belonging to Harris. Police
eventually discovered a collection of more than 275,000 pornographic photos and
films Harris had stored.
The
sex offender is now behind bars after he pleaded guilty to rape, abuse and
possession of indecent images at the High Court in Glasgow.
Father-of-two
Harris showed no emotion as he was led handcuffed to the cells to await
sentencing next month.
The
court heard the abuse was discovered in September last year after Harris
offered a colleague his USB stick on loan. On the storage device was a film of
the rapist abusing a young girl in his own home.
Harris’
colleague immediately informed bosses before the police were alerted. Subsequently,
the father of two was detained at work before his home was searched.
Prosecutor
Martin Macari said officers discovered “an
unusually high amount of indecent content.”
Some
of the explicit content had been stored under names such as “Playtime” and “Alice in Wonderland.”
The
court heard Harris was seen in one clip, brutally raping a two-year-old girl as
she was in a deep sleep. Other footage showed him abusing the same child when
she was older, around the age of seven.
It
was also revealed Harris had targeted another young girl at his home from when
she was about three until she was eight. Harris was also found to have filmed a
third child, naked in a bath, starting when she was six months old. However, the court heard there was “no footage of contact offending”
with that child.
Police
uncovered a total of 275,325 indecent photos and 1,252 video clips. This
constituted a mixture of footage Harris had taken himself and others downloaded
from the internet. Initially, Harris
denied being a paedophile before going on to claim he was “stupid.” Realizing he was
cornered, Harris told officers: “Just
take me out and shoot me.”
Asked
why he was in possession of such “bad
things,” Harris replied: “It
is difficult to understand sometimes. I'm just weird.”
Harris
eventually pleaded guilty to raping one girl and to two charges of using lewd
and libidinous practices against her between 2009 and 2014.
He
also admitted a further two allegations of lewd and libidinous conduct against
the second girl between those dates. The 60-year-old pleaded guilty to separate
charge under the Sexual Offences Act for filming the third girl in the
bath. He then finally admitted to two
charge of possessing sexual images of children dating between 1996 and 2014.
Gordan
Martin, defending, said: “He is
devastated by his actions. He can only say sorry.”
Lord Bannatyne deferred
sentencing until next month.
No comments:
Post a Comment