Alan MacPherson, an 83-year-old Scottish country dancing expert and archivist, has been jailed for four years after police discovered what is thought to be the largest collection of child sexual abuse material ever seized by Police Scotland. The pensioner was found with over two million images at his home in Stenhousemuir, Stirlingshire.
Exceptional scale of offending
At Falkirk Sheriff Court, Sheriff Mayram Labaki told MacPherson that the scale of his crime was “exceptional” as she imposed the prison sentence. Over 805,000 images were formally identified by police as depicting child sexual abuse and given official classifications, with many being of the most serious kind. The court heard that the size of the hoard had “overwhelmed” officers' capacity to check and categorise it.
Nearly 1.4 million images remained ungraded on just one of his devices alone. Police seized nine devices – computers, phones, digital cameras, a USB stick and external drives – and child porn was found on all of them. Five of the devices were subjected to a full examination.
Investigation and sentencing
MacPherson was unmasked after police identified his IP address as being used to distribute child porn online, leading to a raid on his home. He pleaded guilty last month to downloading, possessing and distributing child porn over more than 14 years, between 1 January 2012 and 20 January 2026.
Sheriff Labaki said: “The scale of your offending is exceptional. The quantity [of images] was so great that a substantial proportion could not be examined and categorised by forensic examiners. Every image records the abuse or exploitation of a child. The possession and circulation of such material perpetuates that abuse.”
MacPherson, who is deaf and suffers from macular degeneration, was told that a jail sentence would “bear heavily” upon him due to his age and condition, but the sheriff added: “Those matters are significant but they cannot outweigh the gravity of this offending. Your age does not alter the gravity of the material, nor that your conduct was deliberate, sustained over 14 years, and involved an extraordinary quantity of images. Your views towards your offending and your victims are unconscionable.... I refer specifically to the passages in the report where you state that not only were the children consenting, but they were willing participants. Your attitude is unremorseful.”
Case details and impact
Prosecutor Rachel Wallace told the court that in July 2025 multiple images of child sexual exploitation, classed as Category A, were uploaded via the anti-surveillance messaging app “Session” during an online chat with an undercover police officer. Despite Session's emphasis on anonymity, the IP address was traced to MacPherson's home, and police mounted an early morning raid.
On one solid state storage drive alone, officers graded 698,924 child sexual abuse files but had to leave a further 1.374 million files ungraded. The child victims were females, mostly aged nine to 15, but at least one possibly as young as seven, being penetrated or posing sexually. Ms Wallace said: “Across all the devices examined, 805,306 indecent images were recovered, including both images and videos, including categories A, B and C. Police have advised us this is quite possibly the largest collection of child sexual abuse material ever seen by Police Scotland.”
MacPherson was made subject to a three-year extension to his jail sentence, during which time he will be subject to licence conditions and can be recalled to jail if he reoffends. He was also placed on the sex offenders' register for life. He showed no emotion as he was taken downstairs to the cells. An insider said later: "He won't be looking at anything now.. He needs a big magnifying glass to read -- and they've taken it off him in jail."
