Downloaded more than 2800 still pictures of children being sexually abused by adults including images of rape.

Edinburgh man placed on Sex Offenders Register for possessing thousands of child abuse images

An Edinburgh man has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register after he was caught with thousands of horrific child abuse images.

Thomas Carroll, 58, downloaded more than 2800 still pictures of children being sexually abused by adults, including images of rape, over a near four-year period. He was also found to have accessed 634 videos of abuse, with more than half being rated as Category A – the most vile end of the spectrum.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told on Tuesday that Police Scotland received intelligence in November last year that the images were being accessed at Carroll's home in the Wester Hailes area of the capital. Officers attended the property with a search warrant at around 8.15am on December 20 last year and found the offender home alone.

Fiscal depute Jennifer McLaren told the court that two mobile phones, two USB devices, and a laptop were seized from the home. A subsequent cybercrime investigation showed that three of the devices held thousands of indecent images of children.

The fiscal said a total of 2,823 images and 634 videos of children being sexually abused had been stored on the devices.

Solicitor Kevin Connor, defending, said there were "clearly a lot of images" discovered and acknowledged his client was facing "a very serious matter".

Sheriff Ian Anderson placed Carroll on the Sex Offenders Register for a term still to be determined and deferred sentence for the preparation of social work reports to next month. Carroll, who is a first offender, was granted bail and wore a face mask in an attempt to hide his identity when he left the city centre court building this afternoon.

He had pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home between January 9, 2019 and December 20 last year.