Derek Rice (51), Abbotsford Gardens, Bainsford, was said to have initially looked up adult pornography and happened on the child sexual abuse images as a “byproduct” of this.

He appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday having pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images and pseudo images of children at his home between May 9, 2010 and November 20, 2019.

Katie Cunningham, procurator fiscal depute, said: “Following information being obtained a search warrant was executed at the address of the accused. It was 7.45am and the accused’s mother was traced within the property.

“A search was carried out and a number of items were recovered including a laptop, mobile phone and USB sticks. The accused was arrested and taken to Falkirk Police Station.”

The court heart the number of indecent images contained on the devices totalled 7700 and there were 162 videos many of them on the category A and category C scale, with category A being the most serious level of indecency.

Sheriff Richard Macfarlane adjourned the case over lunchtime to consider his sentence and when he returned he jailed Rice for 12 months. He was also placed on the sex offenders register.