Perth Sheriff Court was told that Iain Hunter, downloaded hundreds of illegal pictures of young children at his home and in the headquarters of Perth and Kinross Council.
He was yesterday found guilty of the two charges and his name was added to sex offenders registers, but Sheriff Shiona Waldron found him guilty in connection with only three of the pictures he was charged with downloading. She said that because the Crown had not produced the rest of the pictures in court she could not take them into account.
Police experts had given evidence that more than 800 photos of children were found on Hunter's computers, but the sheriff said it was not enough for police officers simply to turn up in court and say they had seen the pictures. She said she was left with no choice but to convict Hunter solely on three pictures of young boys, which a medical expert had certified were under 16, and which had been shown to her.
Hunter, who lived with his parents in Gallowhill, Crieff, had told police the obscene images had "just popped up while he was surfing the web. He had denied making the indecent photographs between November 19, 2001, and October 11, 2002. He also denied possessing cannabis at his home on October 11, 2002, despite handing the drug to officers when they raided his house on that date.
Hunter's conviction shocked senior SNP officials and politicians, who had trusted him as an election agent for Roseanna Cunningham, the SNP deputy leader. She had won the then Tory seat of Perth and Kinross following the death of Sir Nicholas Fairbairn. Then, with Hunter as agent, she retained a by-election victory in the 1997 general election.
Her agent was then serving as councillor for Crieff. He had trained as a chef before becoming a full-time councillor under the SNP-led administration. When the Nationalists lost control of the council, he became a gardener. Hunter resigned as a councillor and from the SNP when he was charged with internet pornography crimes.
The alarm was first raised by the council's internet security chiefs after Hunter attempted to access a number of paedophile websites at council offices in Perth. Tayside Police were called in and officers found 815 pornographic images of children on the bachelor's office computer and another 400 indecent images on his home PC.
Perth Sheriff Court heard a recording of an interview between police and Hunter in which a detective asked the defendant if child porn interested him. Hunter replied "It does and it doesn't. I've never done anything to youngsters. But it's just like a lot of things. You look at that then maybe you go look at something to do with trains." but he added "It's certainly more than just obviously an accidental clicking on a site."
The court heard that security software at the council offices had blocked Hunter's attempts to enter a large number of obscene websites featuring very young children.
He narrowly escaped imprisonment after Perth Sheriff Court heard he posed a medium risk to children, he was however banned from being alone with children under 16.
Hunter's home computer was forfeited by the court and sentence was deferred until February 18 for background and community service reports.