A MACMERRY resident has admitted possessing indecent images of children at his home and has now been placed on the sex offenders’ register.

Christopher Bathgate had stored scores of the pictures on his laptop, including some images at the worst end of the spectrum.

The 34-year-old was caught with 93 pictures on the computer and a further 58 images were found on a USB stick in November last year.

Bathgate also admitted to downloading movies featuring adults being filmed while they engaged in sexual activity with animals.

Bathgate pleaded guilty to three charges over a five-year period when he appeared in the dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last Thursday.

Prosecutor Aidan Higgins told the court that Bathgate’s home was attended by police officers executing a search warrant for the premises on November 15 last year.

Mr Higgins said a number of items were recovered from the property, including a laptop and a USB stick.

The fiscal said that police found evidence of Bathgate using an illicit free-to-use website which he said “in recent times is used as a medium for posting and exchanging indecent images [of children]”.

In total, police recovered 10 category A images – the most serious – as well as 16 at category B and a further 125 at category C level.

Also found were the 21 movies featuring the extreme pornographic content.

Solicitor Murray Robertson, defending, said his client was currently attending sessions with the Stop It Now organisation and a report from them would be available to the court at the next hearing.

Sheriff Frank Crowe placed Bathgate on the sex offenders’ register for a time still to be determined and deferred full sentence to August 10.

Bathgate admitted to possessing indecent images of children and to allowing indecent images of children to be made at his home address between December 11, 2011, and November 15 last year.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing extreme pornography depicting adults engaging in sexual activity with animals between the same dates.