Edinburgh crime: Edinburgh carer Kevin Kenny who downloaded child abuse images struck off

An Edinburgh carer who was caught with thousands of horrific child abuse images has been struck off after he failed to inform his employers of his conviction.

Kevin Kenny, 46, was found to have downloaded more than 20,000 pictures of male and female children being sexually abused by adults when police raided his Edinburgh home last year. Kenny pleaded guilty to the offence when he appeared at the Capital’s sheriff court and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and ordered to carry out unpaid work earlier this year.

Kenny has now been banned from working as a carer after the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) struck him from its register following a decision last week. The SSSC found it proved Kenny had been convicted of possessing indecent images of children while employed as a senior care assistant with Renaissance Care (Scotland) Limited between February 2016 and August 2017. The regulator also found it proven Kenny had been convicted while working as a Care Assistant with Renaissance Care (No 1) Limited between August 2017 and September 2022.

A further charge was proved that Kenny had failed to disclose to his employers and the SSSC he had been charged by police between September 2022 and June 2023.

In a written judgement, the SSSC stated: “Social service workers are expected to obey the law and to uphold public trust and confidence in social services. Social service workers must recognise the authority they have and not put themselves or other people at risk or behave, while in or outside work, in a way which would bring their suitability to work in social services into question. You have been convicted of possessing indecent photographs of children or pseudo photographs.

“This is an extremely serious offence, involving behaviour which violates the basic tenets of the profession. Due to the lack of insight shown into the offence and the apparent underlying issue with values and the serious nature of the behaviour, the SSSC considers that there is an ongoing risk to vulnerable children who use services.”

The regulator also stated any reasonable member of the public would have serious concerns about Kenny’s behaviour and are concerned he may be “unfit to be a member of a caring and responsible profession”. Kenny pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home address between February 2016 and September 2022 when he appeared at the capital’s sheriff court in July.

The following month, Sheriff Wendy Sheehan spared him jail and instead sentenced him to a two year supervision order and ordered him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for two years and handed a conduct requirement where he will has to disclose any online activity when required to do so by his supervising officer.

The court was told police received intelligence indecent images of children were being accessed at Kenny’s home in the Murrayfield area of the city and officers raided the property on September 9 last year. A Police Scotland cyber crime report subsequently showed Kenny had downloaded a total of 24,464 images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of young children to three devices. The court heard the images featured both male and female children and contained hundreds rated at Category A - the most depraved end of the spectrum.

A spokesperson from Renaissance Care said: “We work closely with the Scottish Social Services Council and Disclosure Scotland to ensure proper due diligence is carried out as part of our strict background checks for all employees. Immediate action is taken upon notification of any issues.”