A DUMBARTON man who was spared jail after being found in possession of almost 200 indecent pictures of children has been locked up after he failed to comply with his community-based sentence.

Robert McGrandle admitted two child porn charges in February 2018.

But despite being warned that failure to comply with his community payback order would see him sent to jail, he repeatedly ignored a court’s instructions by twice breaching the terms of the order.

The 22-year-old, of Risk Street, was still in his teens when he was caught with the images at a property in the town’s Alclutha Avenue in February 2017.

A year later, he was placed under social workers’ supervision, and put on the sex offenders’ register, after pleading guilty to charges of possessing and of taking, or permitting to be taken, indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children.

A previous court hearing was told that the haul of 191 images was discovered during a police raid on McGrandle’s previous home.

Eleven of the images were described as ‘category B’ – the second most extreme classification of pornographic images – and the remaining 180 were at the less serious category C level.

Some of the pictures which were found in the raid showed children as young as 10 years old.

McGrandle was back in the dock at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Friday after a sheriff asked for a report on his suitability for an ‘extended sentence’ – a punishment which sees offenders placed on licence for a longer time than their original spell behind bars.

Attempting to persuade Sheriff Simon Pender not to send her client to prison, McGrandle’s solicitor, Gail Campbell, said: “The [community payback] order started in extremely good terms but he has had a number of difficulties in his personal life.

“He now has his own tenancy, is in what he describes as a stable relationship, and is in employment.”

Ms Campbell said her client had hopes of securing a place on a programme based at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow for people with specific psychological issues, but that no assessment for that programme could be carried out until the court case against McGrandle was over.

Sheriff Pender, however, pointed out that McGrandle had “decided to breach this order – twice”.

Ms Campbell replied: “He turns up for supervision on every occasion.

“He comes before the court as a young man who is struggling in his day-to-day life.

“He accepts the breaches – there is absolutely no question of that.

“If your Lordship was minded to impose a non-custodial sentence, at the highest level, he would co-operate, but he has attended court this morning with his eyes wide open.”

Sheriff Pender said: “What confidence can I have, standing the warnings he was given before, that he will comply?

“He can have been under no illusion when he was given a second chance that that was his final chance – and yet he chooses to breach an important element of the order.”

After leaving the bench for ten minutes, Sheriff Pender told McGrandle: “Given the serious nature of the offences, and the repeated breaches of the order, I have concluded that the only appropriate sentence is a custodial one.”

McGrandle, who wiped away tears as he was led from the dock, was sentenced to six months in jail; however, he will be on licence for a further two years when released.