Edinburgh man Martin Lipscombe found with child abuse images after avoiding prison sentence

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told Lipscombe possessed more than 4000 images and videos

A man who previously escaped a jail sentence after he was caught performing a sex act over children’s clothing has been found storing a horror collection of child abuse images on his phone.

Martin Lipscombe began downloading disgusting pictures and videos of children as young as four years old being sexually abused to his mobile just 15 months after his last sentence.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told Lipscombe possessed more than 4000 images and videos depicting youngsters being raped while “blindfolded” and with their “limbs bound”. 

Martin Lipscombe began downloading disgusting pictures and videos of children as young as four years old being sexually abused

The court heard the 33-year-old sales assistant, from the capital’s Leith area, had also sent pictures of a young girl during sordid online chats with a fellow pervert.

He appeared in the dock at the capital court on Thursday where he pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing indecent images of children between November 2022 and January last year.

Lipscombe avoided custody three years ago after he was caught with disgusting videos of him performing a solo sex act over children’s clothing.

Vile Lipscombe also took pictures of a 12-year-old girl and her clothing hanging on a washing line and sent the images to an unknown male.

He also admitted to discussing having the child watch him while he masturbated over her clothing during the sick online conversations with the male.

He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and a supervision order for two years and banned from entering the grounds of schools, nurseries and children’s playparks.

This week prosecutor Chelsea Martin said police received intelligence Lipscombe was accessing child abuse images and turned up at his home at around 8am on January 6 last year.

The court was told the sicko was at home with his grandmother and he had handed over a mobile phone to officers stating “he knew what this is about”.

Ms Martin said a forensic analysis showed the device held 4335 child abuse images with 591 rated as Category A - the worst end of the scale. The fiscal said there were also 73 videos - 38 at Category A - depicting young children being sexually abused by adults found on the device.

The court was told the victims were “female children aged between four and 15 years of age” and had been subjected to “oral, anal and vaginal and penetration by adult males”.

Ms Martin added: “Some of the pictures depicted the children blindfolded and some had their limbs bound.”

The fiscal said police officers also uncovered chat logs containing around 20,000 messages where Lipscombe had sent “photos of a young female child” to another person.

Lawyer Paul Smith, defending, said his client “is under no illusion to the seriousness of this crime” and said he would reserve his full mitigation to the sentencing hearing.

Sheriff Julius Komorowski placed Lipscombe on the Sex Offenders Register on an interim basis and deferred full sentence for the preparation of social work reports to next month.

Lipscombe pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home between November 2, 2022 and January 6 last year.

He also admitted to distributing indecent images of children to others from his home between November 2 and December 28, 2022.