An 83-year-old man from Stenhousemuir, Scotland, has been sentenced to prison after amassing over two million images of child sexual abuse. Authorities believe this to be the largest collection of such material ever seized by Police Scotland.
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that police seized nine devices, including computers, phones, digital cameras, a USB stick, and external drives. Child abuse material was found on all examined devices. A full examination of five devices revealed that almost 1.4 million images remained ungraded on one device due to the sheer volume of the collection.
Alan MacPherson was apprehended after police identified his IP address was being used to distribute child abuse material. In July 2025, MacPherson posted multiple images classified as the most serious type of child sexual exploitation during an online chat with an undercover police officer. Although he used a messaging app designed for anonymity, police were able to trace the messages to his home.
The child victims depicted in the material were primarily girls aged between nine and 15, with at least one possibly as young as seven. When arrested and interviewed, MacPherson admitted to searching online for indecent images of children for years for his own personal gratification.