An offshore worker has gone on trial accused of downloading more than 140,000 indecent images of children.
Jonathan Taylor, of Macduff, faces two charges of downloading and being in possession of pornographic images of children.
The 40-year-old denies the charges, and yesterday went on trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
In a joint minute of agreement, the court heard police raided Taylor’s home on Gellymill Street, Macduff last May and found a number of files on devices belonging to him.
The jury heard a total of 99,986 pictures were recovered from a hard drive, and a further 42,502 found on a separate device. They also heard officers found 37 videos containing indecent footage of children.
Fiscal depute Felicity Merson went over Taylor’s interview with police after he was detained, which involved Detective Sergeant Ross Geddes asking if he had ever seen indecent pictures of children.
The jury heard that Taylor replied: “Yes I have, it was years ago, I was not looking for them.
“I downloaded in batches, sometimes you get stuff you’re not looking for.”
He added: “I deleted some of them, it was around 10 years ago when the internet was reasonably new.
“The taboo was a bit of a thrill.”
When asked by the detective if he had been aroused by the images, Taylor said he had not.
During his cross-examination, defence agent Bill Adam asked DC Geddes if Taylor had told officers that there were no passwords on the devices the images had been found on.
DC Geddes confirmed this was true.
Cyber crime officer Ewan Stewart, who examined the contents of the devices, also gave evidence yesterday.
When asked what he found, he told the court: “There were 37 videos featuring children, girls estimated between five and 14 years old.
“The footage lasted 16 hours, 12 minutes and 42 seconds.”
He added the footage showed the girls being abused.
The trial, before Sheriff Andrew Miller, continues.
