Former Radio Forth presenter caught with 663 child porn pictures is spared jail

Former Radio Forth presenter caught with 663 child porn pictures is spared jail

A radio presenter caught with more than 600 indecent images of children on his computer has dodged a jail sentence.

Paul Brownlee, 47, who has worked for Wave 102 in Dundee, Radio Forth in Edinburgh and Radio Borders, Galashiels, and was also an Army Cadets officer in Galashiels, was found with the porn when police raided his then home in Charleston, Dundee, last year.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard the officers were acting on a tip-off that indecent images of children might be found on devices at the property.

Prosecutor Charmaine Gilmartin said his laptop was found to contain 663 indecent images of children, 16 of which were of the most serious “category A” classification.

Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC sentenced Brownlee to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and placed him on the Sex Offenders’ Register for two years.

She told him: “It is a direct alternative to custody.”

Brownlee, a first offender who now lives with his mother in Galashiels, has fronted events with stars such as the Cheeky Girls.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of downloading child porn between January 2018 and January 2019 at the home he formerly shared with his partner and her child at Ullapool Crescent in Dundee.

Stuart Hamilton, defending, said that Brownlee, a manager at Specsavers in St Andrews at the time of his arrest last year, had been deemed “a low risk” of further offending and was suitable for unpaid work..