AN East Renfrewshire man who was charged with downloading child abuse images when he was aged just nine has been caged for sharing more sick files.

Usman Awan, who was said to have stored horrific abuse images while he was still a primary school pupil, first came to the attention of police through Operation NOCAP – the National Online Child Abuse Prevention campaign – in 2016.

A year later, when he was 18, Awan was spared jail and placed on a Community Payback Order (CPO) at Paisley Sheriff Court after he was found to have downloaded pictures and videos on his Samsung tablet of girls as young as five months old being sexually abused.

And, in November last year, he went on to download more child abuse images, which he shared with another paedophile, and found himself back in the dock at court.

Awan, now 20, pleaded guilty to downloading and distributing illegal images at his home in Giffnock during a hearing last month.

Procurator fiscal depute Keri Marshall told the court that, in June 2017, Awan was placed on a CPO with conditions banning him from owning devices which can access the internet, unless he was given permission by his supervising social worker.

On November 28 last year, police raided the home he shared with his parents and found a black iPhone next to the bed he was sleeping in.

Tests revealed he had used the phone to download and distribute child sex abuse images, including one of a 10-year-old girl, wearing a hijab, being forced to perform a sex act on a grown man.

Awan was found to have images of girls as young as three being sexually abused and had used an app called Kik to send that image.

Sheriff Tom McCartney called for background reports to be prepared ahead of sentencing and adjourned the case until last week.

When Awan returned to the dock to learn his fate, defence solicitor Jonathan Manson said his client had been disowned by his family and would be left homeless as a result.

The lawyer added: “He was a victim of abuse when he was younger, by a non-family member, and it appears this is as a result of that abuse.

“It is sometimes common for people that are abused to turn to this sort of crime.

“He was going to study and to get further education and can still make something of himself. He won’t be able to have contact with his family. He will be isolated, alone, and will be homeless. 

“That will happen no matter what your Lordship does.”

As he caged Awan for 16 months and placed him on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years, Sheriff McCartney told him:

“These are serious offences in themselves but they are made more serious by the fact you have a previous conviction for offences of the same kind and were committed at a time when you were subject to a Community Payback Order. “

Awan had previously been charged with repeatedly downloading child abuse images between September 2008, when he was just nine, and August 2016 but pleaded guilty to downloading the images from February 2014, when he was 15.

Officers found a total of 861 illegal pictures and 41 videos had been accessed on his device.