A Moray man caught with about 280 indecent videos and images of toddlers and teenagers has been ordered to carry out unpaid work.
Christopher Nagle kept the material on a laptop, memory stick and mobile phone at his Lossiemouth home.
Police raided the property on February 5 last year after receiving information about the photographs and films being downloaded.
Yesterday the 23-year-old was sentenced at Elgin Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to a charge of “taking, permitting to be taken or making” the images.
Fiscal Alison Young said Nagle immediately directed police to the devices after officers entered the home.
Mrs Young said the children pictured in the material ranged from one to 14 years-old, with 185 of the 282 files being ranked as depicting the most serious kind of abuse.
Solicitor Iain Maltman stressed there were only 85 “original” files, with many being duplicated across the devices.
He said: “From the outset Mr Nagle has said to me he is anxious to take advantage of whatever support is made available to him.”
Sheriff Gary Aitken told Nagle: “There is sometime a misapprehension that this kind of offending is in some way harmless or victimless. It is far from it.
“Every child you look at for your pleasure has been brutalised by someone else for commercial gain. It’s people like you that fuel that industry.”
Nagle, of Ramsay Lane in Lossiemouth, was sentenced to 140 hours of unpaid work and placed under social work supervision for three years.
He has also been placed on the sex offenders’ register for three years.
