A 27-year-old Dingwall man who had thousands of indecent images of children on his computer will be sentenced next month.
Liam Mackay, of Deas Avenue, was also immediately placed on the Sex offender’s Register for a period to be decided when he is sentenced at Inverness Sheriff Court on October 25.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood also called for a background report on the first offender, who admitted the offence.
Fiscal Roderick Urquhart told the court that police received intelligence that a device using an I.P. address registered to Mackay’s home address had been used to download indecent images of children.
Police obtained a warrant to search the house October 17, 2014, and a Philips laptop and a number of other electronic devices were seized.
Mr Urquhart went on: “Specialists examined the articles and found 8,816 indecent images and 54 indecent videos of children on the laptop.
“There was also evidence recovered that he had searched the internet for such material and had visited the sites from which they were downloaded on repeated occasions.
“On one hard drive there were 69 images and 17 videos and on the other one video, of which there was a copy on the laptop.”
The court was told the vast majority of them were at the lower end of the obscenity scale.
Defence lawyer Pauline Chapman reserved her comments until sentencing and Mackay had his bail continued.