An East Kilbride man has been put on the sex offenders’ register after he was caught with nearly 20,000 child sex abuse photos.
George Crawford could also face prison when he returns to Hamilton Sheriff Court for sentence next month.
Crawford, 67, of Ash Places, admitted possession of indecent images. The court heard these were downloaded between January 2018 and February this year.
John Coogan, prosecuting, said police officers armed with a search warrant turned up at his home on February 6.
Several devices were seized and images of children being sexually abused were found on Crawford’s laptop computer, a hard drive, three USB sticks and a systems unit.
Specialist police officers counted 19,461 images with 3418 showing the worst levels of abuse.
Some of the children in the photos were thought to be as young as two years old.
Ten video clips showing youngsters being abused were also found.
Crawford appeared in court as a first offender.
Sheriff Scott Pattison deferred sentence for background reports, a risk assessment and an electronic tagging assessment.
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