An 83-year-old man from Stenhousemuir has received a four-year prison sentence after accumulating what police believe to be the biggest haul of child sexual abuse imagery ever recovered by Police Scotland.
Alan MacPherson had in excess of two million images stored across multiple electronic devices when officers raided his property in 2025.
Sheriff Mayram Labaki, sitting at Falkirk Sheriff Court, described the magnitude of his offending as “exceptional”.
The sheer volume of material was so vast that forensic analysts were unable to review and classify a significant portion of it.
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MacPherson, a former honorary archivist for the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, had previously entered a guilty plea to downloading the material over a period spanning 14 years.
He has been placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
Of the total cache, more than 805,000 images were identified as depicting the sexual abuse of children, with a large proportion falling into the most severe category.
On one device alone, nearly 1.4 million images remained ungraded owing to the overwhelming quantity of material.
Officers recovered nine devices in total — including computers, phones, digital cameras, a USB stick and external drives — all of which contained abusive content. Only five were fully examined.
Sheriff Labaki told MacPherson: “Every image records the abuse or exploitation of a child. The possession and circulation of such material perpetuates that abuse.”
She condemned his attitude as “unremorseful”, highlighting passages from a social work report in which he claimed the children depicted were “consenting” and “willing participants”.
MacPherson was identified after police traced an IP address that was being used to share child abuse material online.
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In July 2025, he sent multiple images classified at the most serious level to an undercover officer via an anonymous messaging application, but investigators successfully linked the communications back to his home address.
Prosecutor Rachel Wallace told the court: “Police have advised us this is quite possibly the largest collection of child sexual abuse material ever seen by Police Scotland.”
The victims depicted were girls, predominantly aged between nine and 15, though at least one child may have been as young as seven.
Upon his arrest, MacPherson admitted to officers that he had spent years seeking out indecent images of children online “for his own personal gratification”.
His defence solicitor advocate, Stephen Biggam, informed the court that MacPherson suffers from macular degeneration and would “steadily lose his eyesight”.
He suggested that this could reduce or remove any future risk he might pose.
MacPherson’s wife has filed for divorce while he remains in custody. Biggam said: “It’s been made plain to him that his wife, his son, and 99 per cent of people in general, want nothing more to do with him.”
Upon release, MacPherson will be subject to three years of supervised monitoring.
The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society expressed shock at the offences committed by its former volunteer archivist.
A spokesman said: “We are shocked and appalled by the offences committed by Alan MacPherson and the details which have emerged through these court proceedings.
“The society takes the safeguarding and wellbeing of everyone involved in its activities extremely seriously and has clear safeguarding policies and procedures in place.”
He added anyone with concerns relating to MacPherson or his involvement in the society should contact them.
“Any concerns raised will be treated seriously and sensitively and, where appropriate, referred to the relevant authorities,” the spokesman said.
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