An East Lothian man caught with 10,000 indecent images of young girls has been ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service.
Police went to Aaron Wyness's home in Dunbar after being contacted by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), amid concern about the behaviour of someone with the user name 'Mechanical Animal'.
A search of the 22-year-old's home led to police uncovering 10,000 indecent photos and films.
Wyness admitted having an interest in girls aged 14 and over, but said he had no attraction to younger. Some images of youngsters had been downloaded by accident but the court heard the vast majority of the images seized were at the lowest end of the scale.
Wyness pled guilty to being in possession of the pictures between July 2006 and March 2008 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.
Sentence was deferred until Wednesday to allow for background reports.
His solicitor, Angela Craig, said her client was at low to medium risk of re-offending. She said he had shown an "immature lack of understanding of the consequences" of his actions at the time of the offence, but now showed a good understanding of its seriousness.
The case had come as a terrible shock to his family.
Sheriff Mhairi Stephen said she was concerned about reference in a report that he had posed as a younger man on the web site.
She told him :"It is always difficult to comprehend how people become involved in the possession of child pornography".
She acknowledged that the images were not the worst to come before the court and did not feature very young girls.
However, she said there were indications of a more serious category of offending. She told Wyness: "I am concerned about your behaviour on the web site which was flagged up in the reports, but that was not on the charge".
Sheriff Stephen said that she had to take into account the protection of young girls.
Wyness was placed on probation and the Sex Offenders Register for three years and ordered him to perform 200 hours of Community Service.
He has also been ordered to attend an assessment for a sex offenders intervention programme and is banned from having unsupervised contact with under 16s.
He was also warned that police will have to right to search any computer or media equipment under his use at any time.
