A Cambusnethan man caught with nearly 50,000 child abuse images claimed he’d been viewing indecent material since the age of 12.
Cameron Logan has now been warned he faces jail after police said the pictures recovered were among the worst they’d ever seen.
Logan, 27, appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Friday.
He admitted downloading indecent photos and videos at his home in Thrashbush Crescent over a 15-year period.
Jennifer McLaren, prosecuting, said police went to the house with a search warrant on January 28 this year.
She told the court: “The accused was there with a family member.
“As police searched the property he told them ‘All the stuff this pertains to is mine. I’ve been doing it since I was 12. I want help but who do you turn to?’
“Officers took away three phones and a computer tower for analysis.
“The images featured mostly female children, aged between two months to 14 years.
“Given the age range and the nature of the abuse, it was some of the worst material officers had ever seen.”
Police seized a total of 48,092 indecent photos and 1,716 videos.
Of the photos, 2,177 were in the most serious category while 701 of the videos were in that category.
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Ms McLaren said it wasn’t possible to clarify Logan’s claim that he had been downloading child abuse images since the age of 12.
The earliest creation date of the images found was January 2015.
Sheriff Ray Small deferred sentence on Logan, who has no previous convictions of any sort, until December 3.
The sheriff placed him on the sex offenders’ register and said he would study a background report and a risk assessment before deciding how to deal with him.
But he warned that because of the high number of images found and the number in the most serious category a jail sentence is “highly likely”.
Logan had his bail continued to a new address that was not disclosed.
