Police searched Harris’ home after receiving intelligence about him, taking his mobile phones, an iPad and an iPod touch, Crown Advocate Chris Baglin told the Court.
Harris was arrested and commented: “It will be on my iPad there will be some naturalist photographs on there both of male and female children / young teens.”
He was interviewed on the same day, and said the images were solely on his iPad, that the majority were “naturist” pictures of children aged 11 to 15 years old, and that there may be some short videos of children the same age, but he wasn’t sure how many.
Pictured: Paul Harris appeared in the Royal court on Wednesday.
He provided PINs for all the seized devices, and told the interviewer the names of the folders where the images would be found on the iPad.
He estimated there were several hundred indecent images on his iPad, which he viewed a couple of times a week. He said they helped him to relax, though denied being aroused by them.
He said he had generated all images from copying and pasting them from a website, and had been doing it for less than a year.
He said he had not disclosed his interest in indecent imagery to the children he worked with as a Scout Leader.
His iPad upon examination was found to contain more than 2,200 images – 85 of the pictures were in the most serious category, an 19 of the videos – with creation dates ranging from 22 November 2020 to 24 March 2021, two days before his arrest.
Pictured: Harris was handed a prison sentence for his offending.
20 pseudo indecent images of children were also found but no further charges were brought as they were computer generated and did not involve ‘real’ children.
Police also found a number of indecent search terms, as well as a web history that had a website with the word ‘rape’ in its name.
Due to the number of images found, he was interviewed again in August, where he said his interest in naturism had begun around the time he had downloaded indecent images.
He remained silent about why he was looking up the search criteria found, and then said on certain search terms put to him – such as one relating to the genitals of “little boys” – that it was out of curiosity.
When asked how the images came onto his device, he suggested they may have been sent as a joke.
Harris – who was defended in Court by Advocate Francesca Pinel – then said he had typed the search terms on his iPad as he needed to know what the children he was working with were going through, adding that he himself had not understood what was going on when he was developing in his youth and that he had been bullied and segregated as a child.
However, he then admitted the iPad was his and he had downloaded the images and that they were in his possession.
Having heard the evidence, the Royal Court sentenced him to two years and two months in prison on all three counts he was charged with, to be served concurrently.
The court also gave him seven years on the Sex Offenders’ Register before he could apply to remove his name, and a seven-year restraining order.
Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, sitting with Jurats Robert Christensen and Andrew Cornish, presided over the sentencing.