A Moray man has been placed on the sex offenders register after being caught with indecent videos of children as young as six.
One of the films found on a tablet computer belonging to John Rouse, from Fochabers, depicted a 12-year-old girl and an animal.
Yesterday the 60-year-old pleaded guilty to charges of “taking, permitting to be taken or making” indecent photographs of children and possessing similar images.
Fiscal Robert Weir said police launched an investigation after being alerted to images being uploaded to the internet from an address associated with an e-mail account registered as “Johnny Boy”.
The inquiry was later passed to the national child abuse team, who obtained search warrants to search Rouse’s Speyside home.
Four videos, which had a total run time of 11 minutes, were found on a tablet computer inside – one was category A, which is the most serious on the scale, one was graded B with the remaining two C.
Mr Weir said: “The accused was alone in the property at the time. It was explained to him why the police were there.
“At that point he said ‘it was sent to me. I didn’t ask for it as I don’t really like stuff like that’.”
The fiscal added: “During interview the accused admitted clicking on unknown links as his explanation, and said he had seen the images of the children.
“He also admitted using search criteria on the internet including ‘young porn’. He didn’t accept being sexually attracted to children.”
Rouse pleaded guilty to the offences, which took place between January 20 and January 31.
The second charge of possessing the images spanned dates from January 20 to February 7, which is when police raided his home.
Defence solicitor Robert Cruickshank stressed that his client had no previous convictions but did not make any further comments on behalf of him.
Rouse, of Slorachs Brae in Fochabers, had his sentence deferred until November 28 for reports to be prepared. He was placed on the sex offenders register until that date.