A Dundee man has been warned he faces jail after being caught with a stash of child rape videos.
Paul Simms had his house in the city raided by cops on September 28 last year.
Police discovered he had wiped his laptop and reinstalled the operating system the day before officers attended.
But specialist forensic cyber crime officers were able to recover 149 indecent images and 10 sick videos with a total run time of almost four hours.
A sheriff warned Simms: “The number and category of images means a custodial sentence will be my starting point.”
Fiscal depute Eilidh Robertson told Dundee Sheriff Court: “Police found the operating system on the laptop had been re-installed the previous day which meant that items on the laptop, including the indecent images, had been deleted.
“However, analysts were able to recover the documents using specialist forensic software.”
She said the images depicted children as young as three being raped by adults.
Simms, 35, of Scott Street, Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to taking or making indecent images of children between May 12 and July 12 last year at his home address.
Sheriff Simon Collins QC deferred sentence until next month for social work background reports.
Simms was released on bail and placed on the sex offenders register meantime.
