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North-east man sent ‘disturbing’ video of boys and donkey to colleague on Whatsapp

Phillip Ferguson leaving Aberdeen Sheriff Court
Phillip Ferguson leaving Aberdeen Sheriff Court

A north-east man sent a colleague an indecent video involving young children and a donkey – and then laughed about it.

Phillip Ferguson, 63, sent his colleague the disturbing video on Whatsapp and the shocked man told him he needed help.

Not perturbed, Ferguson joked: “Haha, you have just found that out? LOL.”

Depute fiscal Felicity Merson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the video, which lasted 29 seconds, showed two naked male children and a donkey.

She added: “The colleague was shocked by this video, responding in strong terms to the accused that he needed help.”

The video was sent on December 1 2017.

Ms Merson went on: “It was a couple of months later, having continued to feel uncomfortable about the content of the video, this work colleague attended at police headquarters to report the matter.”


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The day after it was reported to police, Ferguson was arrested and provided an entirely “no comment” interview.

Devices were seized and officers discovered two videos with a total combined play length of 42 seconds.

One was ranked as category A, the most serious, and the other category B.

The other video found, which ran for 13 seconds, showed a boy performing an indecent act in a classroom with other children.

Ferguson, of Kirkton Place, Elgin, pled guilty to possessing and also to distributing or showing indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children.

The offences happened at an address in Aberdeen and elsewhere.

Defence agent Alex Burn said his client was a first offender.

He added: “I’m sure the court will be looking for background reports in respect of the matter.”

Sheriff Ian Wallace deferred sentence until later this month for reports.

This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.