A pervert has been warned he could face a jail sentence after being caught with nearly 150,000 indecent images of children.
Police swooped on Martin Third’s home in Fraserburgh after tracing the IP address of a device that had indecent images of children available for sharing online.
A search warrant was executed at 7.35am on July 9 last year, when Third, 49, admitted he knew about the indecent images of children and showed officers two computer towers in his bedroom.
Sickening haul of almost 150,000 images
The devices were examined and the sickening haul of almost 150,000 images was discovered, as well as videos with a combined play length of more than a day.
Fiscal depute Colin Neilson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court in one of the computers police discovered 98 accessible category C images, the least serious category, as well as two category B videos and five category C ones.
In the other computer, police found “a very large number of deleted images and videos” which were, at the time of analysis, inaccessible to the user.
These included 144,798 category C images, 2,641 category B, and 412 category A, the most serious.
There were also 33 category A videos, 14 category B, and 244 category C.
Mr Neilson added: “The total run-length of the videos was one day, seven hours and 33 minutes.
“It is unknown how the inaccessible images were downloaded however it is suspected torrents may have been used. This is a method for downloading very large files.”
Third was arrested and made admissions in interview about having downloaded indecent images of children “for a number of years”.
“The total run-length of the videos was one day, seven hours and 33 minutes.
Third, of Old Strichen Road, Fraserburgh, pled guilty to taking, permitting to be taken or making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children between October 2 2013 and July 9 2020.
Sheriff William Summers told Third: “The charge you have pled guilty to is very serious, involving a very substantial number of indecent images of children.
“Very often, charges of this nature result in the imposition of a custodial sentence.”
The sheriff deferred sentence until April for a social work report and risk assessment to be prepared, and made Third subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act.
Defence agent Sam Milligan reserved his mitigation until the sentencing hearing.
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