A depraved dad was snared with horrific child sex abuse videos which featured victims as young as six-months-old.
James McCabe amassed 588 videos totalling nearly 32 hours in length which showed incidents of barbaric torture.
In some of the material discovered on McCabe’s computer unit, kids as young as five were tied up with ropes.
Youngsters were raped in the videos while there was also scenes of bestiality involving dogs.
Following his guilty plea, a sheriff ordered McCabe’s computer be forfeited and sent for destruction.
McCabe, 61, appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday and admitted possessing indecent images of children.
Fiscal depute Matthew Miller said cops staged an early morning raid at McCabe’s home in the city’s Murrayfield area under warrant.
Mr Miller said the accused pointed out a computer tower unit and told officers: “This is the one you need to look at.”
The unit was examined by cyber crime specialists and found to have been used under the profile name ‘Hamish’.
Police tied its sole use to McCabe through motor insurance and holiday documents stored on it, the court heard.
Mr Miller said 6574 images of child abuse were recovered, including 958 at Category A - the worst level - along with 642 at Category B and 4944 at Category C.
The court was told the images featured boys and girls aged from six months to 16.
Mr Miller said: “While the majority of files centred on sexual posing, there was a significant number of images present which were described as being particularly graphic, including depictions of the rape of infants.”
The prosecutor said there was material showing children as young as five “tied up with ropes or cord and clearly in distress”.
Mr Miller said there were also images of injuries suffered by a child victim.
The court was told the videos involved boys and girls aged six months to 16. Some 588 videos were found - 460 at Category A with 111 at Category B and 17 at Category C.
Mr Miller said McCabe had entered search terms which were “indicative of him having knowledge of child sexual exploitation material”.
He said the Crown were making a motion to have the computer tower destroyed.
McCabe pled guilty to possessing the sick collection at his home between April 14 2020 and September 9 2021.
Defence agent Calum Turner said his client was a first offender who was engaging with the Stop It Now! child protection charity.
Sheriff Chris Dickson told McCabe it was an “extremely serious matter” before deferring sentence for reports until next month.
The sheriff placed McCabe on the sex offenders register in the interim.
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