A bakery boss has been warned he is facing jail after admitting having nearly 16,000 indecent images of children.
David Aitken, 60, who is in the process of selling the Aitkens Bakery shops, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted the offences.
The court was told he had 15,961 still images and 405 videos, which were discovered when police raided his home.
Aitken, who is a partner in the bakery business, admitted taking or permitting to be taken or made indecent images of children as well as possessing the material.
The offences took place between March 16 2010 and September 11 2017.
Depute fiscal Alan Townsend said that when police raided the house on November 2, 2017, his wife and son were at home but he was out, and later traced at work.
Once told that a warrant had been executed at his home, the court heard Aitken “started to shake, saying he should not make any comment”.
Mr Townsend said that during the examination of the seized computers and hard drives, equipment “baking-related content consistent with his profession” and “a large amount of documents relating to Aitkens Bakery” were found.
But indecent images and videos were also recovered – right across the categories A, B and C in the sliding scale – with A being the most severe category in grading abuse images.
Defence agent Andrew Ormiston asked for sentence to be deferred for a report and for his client to remain on bail.
He said Aitken was a partner in the business along with a family member.
He added: “He has a number of employees going through the redundancy process.
“That is still ongoing. That includes the sale of a number of properties.
“It is for these reasons that I ask for him to remain on bail, to allow him to conclude that process.”
Sheriff William Summers told Aitken, of Anderson Drive, Aberdeen: “You have pled guilty to two very serious charges.
“You need to recognise the inevitability of a custodial sentence being imposed when you return to court.”
Sentence was deferred until next month, with Aitken put on the sex offenders register in the meantime.
