A Tain man was caught with more than 200 indecent images of children stored on his devices.
Police seized mobile phones, a hard drive and laptop from Peter Foster’s home and found sick photos of children aged six to 15.
Some of the photographs were classed as category A – showing the most serious abuse.
Foster, 49, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a single charge relating to the downloading of the material
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told the court that officers received intelligence from Police Scotland’s national child abuse investigation unit that indicated that Foster was linked to online activity related to indecent images of children.”
Search warrant found sick images
As a result of this, a search warrant was granted for Foster’s home, which was executed on September 5.
Ms Poke said officers attended at the property and were let in by Foster, who was alone.
The search recovered “a number of devices” and Foster confirmed he owned all of them.
More that 200 indecent images
Subsequent examination of the devices found “in excess of 200 images featuring children aged between six and 15 years of age.
“The images were categories A, B and C and are not believed to be first generation images,” Ms Poke said.
The court heard that all of the images were accessible to users of the devices and had been created between January 29 2019 and May 29 2024.
Foster was arrested and taken to Burnett Road Police Station where he was interviewed, cautioned and charged.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank called for a criminal justice social work report and restriction of liberty assessment to be prepared for Foster before sentencing in July of this year.
He placed Foster on the sex offenders register with immediate effect and continued his bail until the next calling of the case.
Solicitor Shahid Latif, for Foster, reserved his comments in mitigation in behalf of Foster, of Stafford Street, Tain, until that date