Images of young boys being abused were found on the computer of an Army cadet instructor, a jury at Inverness Sheriff Court was told yesterday.
Many of the pictured depicted graphic sadism while hundreds of others showed youngsters being tied up.
Michael Macrae, 23, whose address was given as 14 Merryton Crescent, Nairn, denies possessing the images and permitting them to be made or taken at addresses in Inverness and Nairn between July 8, 2011, and November 24, 2012.
As trial got under way at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, his lawyer Duncan Henderson lodged a special defence that his client had not seen the images or known they were indecent.
In evidence jointly agreed by Mr Henderson and fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart, the jury was told police were granted a warrant on November 23, 2012, to search the house understood to be occupied by Macrae and his father Thomas at 14 Merryton Crescent, Nairn.
The following morning, officers went to the address and discovered Macrae had recently moved to live with his mother, Susanne Fraser and her family 25 Morning Field Drive, Inverness.
A number of computers and associated equipment were removed from the Nairn property. They were subsequently examined and found to contain no indecent material.
The same day, police obtained a second warrant to search Morning Field Drive, where officers seized a number of computers and associated equipment.
Police also went to Fort George where they found Macrae was acting as an instructor to Army cadets on the live firing range.
Police forensic computer analyst Charles Bruce said he examined a laptop and found three indecent images of young girls and hundreds of photos of young boys between the ages of 10-12, which were not classed as indecent, but did show youngsters bound and gagged.
They were created on Macrae’s computer on October 31, 2012.
More than 90 indecent images were found, 76 of them in the highest category of obscenity.
Of these, 41 were created on July 8, 2011 and copied on Macrae’s computer on January 18, 2012.
The trial continues.
