Technical studies teacher Blair Paton, 39, was collared with 1,700 vile snaps of girls as young as five.

He told officers he “does not find the children he teaches attractive and that he is not a danger to children”.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that he also said: “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Paton is now on the sex offender’s register and taught at the city’s St Machar Academy before he was arrested.

Fiscal Carol Gammie said cops got a tip-off last year that an account linked to Paton’s email address had shared sick images on social media app Kik

She revealed a total of 1,767 inaccessible indecent images of children were discovered.

A total of 787 were classed as Category A, the most serious, and another 734 were Category C.

The fiscal said: “He stated he had joined some groups.

“Within these groups other people were sharing pictures and that is how they had got onto his mobile phone.

“He stated that in the moment he had found it exciting. He said he was unsure if he was sexually attracted to children, but thought he must have been at that time

He stated that he tried to delete all indecent images of children from his devices after deleting Kik.”

Paton, from Fife, admitted one one charge of taking or permitting to be taken or made indecent images or pseudo-images of children at an address in Blackdog, Aberdeenshire between May 23 and July 21 2020.

Paton featured in BBC One’s documentary Teacher Teacher in 2005 which followed him after he graduated from uni.