A twisted couple were caught with hoards of images of people having sex with human corpses and animals, a court has heard.
Mark Mason, 51, and his wife Wendy, 53, admitted hoarding a stash of extreme pornography as well as indecent of children at their home in Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire.
The sick pair appeared at Dumfries Sheriff Court where they admitted a string of charges spanning between February 2021 and April 2022.
Mr Mason admitted possessing extreme pornography and indecent images of children as well as attempting to indecently speak to six children who were actually undercover adults working to weed out predators online.
His wife also pleaded guilty to possessing and sharing indecent photos of children as well as extreme pornography.
Mark Mason, 51, and his wife Wendy, 53, were caught with hoards of images of people having sex with human corpses and animals, a court has heard
The sick pair (pictured) appeared at Dumfries Sheriff Court where they admitted a string of charges spanning between February 2021 and April 2022
Mason was jailed for 34 months and placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
His wife was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work, tagged for nine months and put under supervision for three years.
She will also be on the sex offenders’ register for five years and made subject to a five year sexual harm prevention order.
Sheriff McCallum told Mr Mason: ‘In 34 years’ involvement in the criminal justice system first as a solicitor, then as counsel, then as senior counsel and now as a judge, before your case, I had never personally previously encountered a case where a person was found to be in possession of images of persons engaging in sexual activity with human corpses as features in the libel of that that you have pleaded guilty to in this case.
‘One hears about such things, but one hopes personally never to experience or to deal with such a case.
‘That anyone would wish to possess or view such images and derive sexual gratification from doing so almost beggars belief, but you apparently did. Why else would you possess them?’
Sheriff McCallum told Wendy Mason: ‘Whilst it is suggested that you committed these disgusting and reprehensible offences under the influence of, and in order to please, your husband, as is recognised in the Criminal Justice Social Work report, and as common sense establishes, the offences committed by you were not impulsive. They required planning and effort on your part.
‘I am entitled to infer or conclude that a person with no interest in such vile material would simply refuse to engage in such activity at all. You clearly did not refuse to engage in such activity.’