East Lothian man filmed himself attacking sleeping child while on holiday

A depraved hotel manager from East Lothian recorded himself sexually abusing a sleeping child and shared the images with online perverts he was in contact with.

Anthony McKnight made the horror videos involving a young boy he had met while on a family holiday in Wales last year. McKnight, 38, produced four short recordings of him abusing the child as well as taking photos of the youngster while he carried out a solo sex act.

The images were uncovered after police were tipped off McKnight was in possession of child abuse images and had raided his home in Haddington, East Lothian, earlier this year. Specialist officers seized a mobile phone and two laptops during the search and following a cyber crime examination of the devices a total of 4823 images and 155 videos were found.

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Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the category A material included images of newborn babies being sexually abused by adults and children being forced to engage in sexual acts with animals. McKnight appeared from custody at the capital court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing, taking or making and distributing indecent images of children between July 7, 2020 and June 7 this year.

Fiscal depute Matthew Miller told the court police received intelligence McKnight was in possession of indecent images of children and arrived at his home with a search warrant at around 7am on June 26 this year. Mr Miller said the haul of sickening images were located in a hidden folder on his iPhone and following a forensic examination of the electronic devices material was found showing McKnight abusing a young boy.

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The court heard the pictures and videos had been taken by McKnight himself after meeting the child on holiday in Wales in December last year. The fiscal said chat log evidence was also discovered that showed McKnight had shared the footage of him and the boy with perverts he was in contact with online.

One video showed McKnight touching the genitals of the child who was asleep in his bed while another depicted the half-naked boy in the background while McKnight performed a sex act. Sheriff Alistair Noble remanded McKnight in custody and placed him on the sex offenders register on an interim basis.

Full sentence was deferred for the preparation of social work reports and a risk assessment to later this month.

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