A north-east oil worker has been placed on the sex offenders register after being caught with thousands of indecent images of children.
Alan Sutherland appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday and admitted downloading 2,440 pictures to his computer over the course of five months while he lived at 9 Allandale Gardens, Kintore.
He also admitted being in possession of the pictures on March 10 last year.
Fiscal depute Lynzi Souter said 947 of the obscene images were classed as being at level A – the highest end of the scale.
The court heard 867 of the images were classified as level B and 626 were deemed to be level C.
Representing the first offender, solicitor Les Green said his client had been in the “habit” of visiting adult porn sites and had gradually started to view the indecent images.
He said the 59-year-old worked in the oil and gas industry and was based in Denmark.
Mr Green added that the conviction would “probably result in the termination of his employment”.
Sheriff Annella Cowan deferred sentence for background reports but warned Sutherland that given the number of images involved at a high level, he was facing jail.
He was placed on the sex offenders register and he will return to court next month.