Bellshill man caught with nearly 70,000 child sex abuse photos and videos at previous address in Carluke

Colin Dingle, 35 of Alderston Place was placed on the sex offenders' register when he appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court.

Dingle, who has no previous convictions of any nature, admitted possession of indecent images at his home in Carluke’s Craignethan View.

Alice Carey, prosecuting, said police officers armed with a search warrant went to the house on October 7, 2020.

She told the court: "Dingle was asked if he knew why they were there and he nodded. Six devices were seized and a preliminary examination showed there were indecent images of children on five of them. Dingle was taken to Motherwell police station and made no reply when charged. Due to the volume of files it wasn't until September the following year that a full police cybercrime report was received."

Nearly 68,000 photos showing children being sexually abused were found on Dingle's devices.

Many were in Category A, the most serious in the classification system. There were also 1,500 videos featuring sexual abuse of youngsters. Some of these films were an hour or more long.

Sheriff Alasdair MacFadyen deferred sentence until next month for a criminal justice social work report. Dingle remains on bail. The sheriff will consider a prosecution request to have him made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order.

The sheriff ordered destruction of the five devices on which the indecent material was found.