A MAN who trawled dark websites for violent child abuse images then shared them with other paedophiles has been jailed for three years and put on the sex offenders register for life.

Craig Robertson was at the time under a court order that was supposed to prevent him carrying out any further sexual offences after being jailed in 2010 – when he was known as Craig Bence – for an almost identical offence.

But despite the fact he downloaded hundreds of images and videos of children being abused that were ranked at the top level of seriousness by police experts.

He used an instant messaging service to contact other paedophiles and send the pictures to them.

Despite that, Robertson told police: “I would never harm a child.”

Sheriff Court to downloading and distributing indecent images of children at his home last year.