A hospital radiologist found in possession of ''revolting'' pornographic images of young children is now at the centre of a legal wrangle over computer electronics.
But Dr Philip McAndrew, 37, of Ballencrieff Cottages, Longniddry, East Lothian, a radiologist at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, Fife, will have to wait a week to discover his fate.
McAndrew, a former Liberal Democrat candidate in East Lothian Council elections, admitted at Haddington Sheriff Court last month to being in possession of a quantity of indecent photographic images contained within a computer disc on April 23.
The court heard that McAndrew told police who raided his house that he had accessed the pornographic images via a source on the Internet.
The images were described by his defence lawyer, Mr Alex Prentice, as ''revolting''.
The court was told the accused had started to erase some of the images which he had obtained for his own private use. The accused now stood to lose his job.
But when McAndrew appeared before Sheriff George Presslie at Haddington yesterday a legal debate ensued as to whether the term computer electronic image was defined within the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 section 52A under which the charges had been brought by the Crown.
Sheriff Presslie wondered if a computer floppy disc with imaging material on it could be regarded as a photograph within the terms of the Act.
Mr Prentice said he was making no secret of the fact that the issue troubled him. There was a risk that the original guilty plea had been tendered improperly in the circumstances.
This was new territory and could be regarded as something of a test case for the future, he said.
In addition his client had erased some of the indecent material from which the police had produced photographs of electronic images using specialist complex procedures.
Mr Prentice said it was an issue of enormous importance and moved that McAndrew's plea of guilty be withdrawn and for leave to substitute a not guilty plea.
This was opposed by procurator-fiscal Angus Reith who claimed a recent High Court ruling had made it clear that extraction of images from a computer disc fell within the act.
The sheriff continued the case until November 24 for consideration of the legal motion for McAndrew to change his plea.
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