Gerald McGrory looked stunned and exhaled deeply in the dock of the sheriff court on being told that custody was the ‘only appropriate disposal’ due to the ‘gravity’ of his crimes.

The 62-year-old — who downloaded videos of girls as young as three being sexually abused — ‘lacked empathy’ for the victims, social workers concluded.

A background report on him stated that he had ‘poor understanding’ of his offences and had ‘attempted to minimise his behaviour’.

Police swooped on McGrory’s West Blackhall Street flat in a dawn raid and found an array of appalling images on his mobile phone, including category A material — classed in law as the worst.

It was discovered that he had engaged in a text message conversation with another paedophile and shared images with him over a period of 15 months prior to his arrest in October 2020.

McGrory was sacked from his job of 20 years with Aulds bakery after pleading guilty in March

McGrory had admitted a charge of distributing or showing still and moving images on various occasions between November 26 in 2019 and March 3 2020.

His phone contained a total of 72 indecent images, made up of still photos and videos

His haul of still images contained category A, B and C photos. While his collection of depraved videos was made up of mostly category A movies showing the rape and torture of children

McGrory collected the material between July 1 and October 28 in 2020.

Sheriff Linda Smith told him that she had considered Scottish sentencing guidelines and had ‘reflected carefully’ on the background report.

The sheriff said: “I must balance that with the serious nature of the offences and your lack of empathy for the victims.”

Sheriff Smith imposed a 27-month extended sentence — made up of a prison term of 15 months and a further 12 months on licence and under supervision in the community.