Kilmarnock sheriff court: The trial continues. Pic: © STV
A civil servant caught with more than 33,000 images of children being sexually abused claimed they had been put on his computer by hackers.
Craig Geddes, 33, was arrested after police acting on intelligence seized three hard drives from the bedroom of his home in Stewarton, Ayrshire.
Geddes went voluntarily to Saltcoats police office where detectives told him they had discovered "mass amounts" of child pornography.
Asked for his reaction, the Job Centre worker said: "I can't take it in just now,” adding: "Can a virus do that?"
Geddes was the only person with access to the computers in the house he shared with his parents, Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard.
Prosecutor Andrew Calderwood asked Geddes why such a vast amount of indecent images should have been found on his computers.
Geddes replied: "It was someone using my computer for their own purposes so I am standing here and not them."
He said he had no interest in child pornography and added: "I think it's repulsive. It's a sickness."
Geddes insisted he was a victim of "a person with technology and with the capability to hack into computers".
The court heard a hacker would have to have known his IP address, which would have changed every time he logged on.
Detective Constable June McKay, of Strathclyde Police computer crime unit, said she had never heard of a virus installing child pornography remotely on another computer.
"If you had a computer you'd probably also have anti-virus software installed," she said.
"People can view IP addresses but can't do much else.
"We've never heard of a virus or trojan that could do that sort of thing."
DC McKay added: "The easiest way to deny responsibility for indecent images being there is to blame it on trojans, pop-ups or whatever."
Geddes denies possessing the indecent images in January 2007. The trial continues.
