A WHITECRAIG man was caught with hundreds of child porn movies and images after signing up to an illicit website.
Charles Waters downloaded the images and movies featuring child abuse from the website which he had found on the ‘hidden internet’.
Waters was caught after Police Scotland’s Cyber Crime Unit received details of his online activities and, after searching his home for computer equipment, he quickly admitted his guilt.
Many of the images found on Waters’ computer and phone were at the most serious end of the spectrum.
The 49-year-old has now been placed on the sex offenders’ register and has been banned from using his mobile phone and having any unaccompanied contact with children under 16 following an appearance at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last Tuesday.
Fiscal depute Anthony Steele told the court that police arrived to search Waters’ home at about 7am in April last year and were met by his unsuspecting partner.
Mr Steele said: “In March 2015, the cyber-crime unit received intelligence that a person residing there had viewed or downloaded indecent pictures of children.
“These images were accessed by the internet and included first-generation Category A indecent images of children which were uploaded to a website.
“To view these images, the user had to be a member of the website.”
Mr Steele added that police discovered 183 movies and 24 still images of child pornography on Waters’ electronic devices.
Defending solicitor Rebecca Weissgerber said her client had “not actively searched for” the indecent images, but had “come across them” inadvertently.
Ms Weissgerber added that Waters was currently attending voluntary sessions with the anti-child sex abuse agency Stop It Now.
Sheriff Kenneth Maciver placed Waters on the sex offenders’ register for a period still to be determined and ordered him to adhere to his previous bail conditions regarding using a mobile phone and being in the company of under-16s without adult supervision. 
Sentence was deferred to later this month for the preparation of reports.
Waters admitted to taking or permitting to be taken indecent photographs of children at his home between October 7, 2014, and February 21 last year.