Mark Cashman is a Prestwick Paedophile, discovered storing thousands of graphic photographs of horrible child sex assault in his house shared with his wife.
After downloading copies of the images for his pleasure, Mark Cashman entered a guilty plea to a charge of taking, allowing to be taken or creating obscene images of children between November 11, 2009, and February 20, 2023.
When Mark Cashman showed up in court last week [ Monday, July 22], the 51-year-old admitted having the same photographs in a firestick gadget and computer ‘locked in a separate bedroom’ at his house in Ayr Road.
Police reached Mark Cashman’s house address on February 20, 2023, in possession of a sheriff search order following an inquiry by the national online child abuse scheme.
“They were discovered in a different bedroom closed from the inside at the time; Mark Cashman’s wife let them into the locked room.
“Police found an Amazon Firestick and a desktop tower unit. Mark Cashman verified ownership of the gadgets, and both were confirmed to be relevant.
Mark Cashman, who answered nothing, was cautioned and charged by police officials.
“It was seen that the firestick device linked to the tower unit.
“Multiple times throughout [the period libelled], web history was detected with child sex abuse search terms.
“Cybercrime investigation of the Firestick revealed, in category A, two accessible images, category B four unique, accessible images, category C, 477 images, 473 accessible [not having been previously erased].
“These pictures mostly show three to seventeen-year-old female children.
Additional moving pictures revealed: “Category A, 68; Category B, 12; and Category C, three; these included males and females aged six to sixteen.
“The tower unit contained 347 Category A still photographs, 327 accessible; 500 Category B, 435 accessible; 3,654 Category C, 3,615 accessible, a total of 4, 501 distinct images.
“These were female, zero, newborn, to sixteen years old.
There were also moving images in the tower unit: 676 Category A, 634 accessible; 301 Category B, 288 accessible; and 84 Category C, 75 accessible, a total of 1,061 moving images.
“These comprised mostly female children ranging in age from one to sixteen.”
Defence solicitor John Gallagher said he had nothing to say in mitigating “at this junctural” and expected “a full range of reports” before sentencing.
He said, “Mark Cashman knows he will be subject to the notification requirements.”
Sheriff Mhairi MacTaggart said: “Sentencing is postponed, allowing for suitable risk assessment and social work investigations to be conducted. You will be expected to comply totally.
“You will now be subject to the notification requirements, and there will also be a constraint on the liberty order assessment.”
Mark Cashman showed up in court with family and will return for sentence later. Bail was maintained for him.
UPDATE 16.10.24
Perverted Mark Cashman was locked up for 20 months at Ayr Sheriff Court and will be subject to an extended sentence for two years on his release from custody.
A recent sentencing hearing was told he had been attacked with a knife for downloading the horrific images, described as “the worst” ever seen.
The 51-year-old – who hoarded abhorrent pictures of children aged from newborn babies to 16 – was given another chance to speak to court social workers before sentence, after complaining of his own “predicament and circumstances”, “his own vulnerabilities” and “sense of entitlement to view” the disgusting content, rather than the impact his offending behaviour had on the youngsters.
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