A 54-year-old Methil man has sought help from a psychotherapist after being caught downloading indecent images of children.
Alistair McGow, of Dubbieside, who had no previous convictions, has lost his job and seen his daughter refuse to speak to him since his arrest.
Police officers discovered 21 images ranging from levels one to four on his computer, which showed male and female children aged nine to 14 engaged in sexual acts.
Solicitor Mark Harrower said his client had started looking at the images after viewing adult pornography.
Police received information that a device had accessed indecent material of children via the internet from McGow’s home address.
When interviewed by officers, McGow admitted using a file sharing system called Limerunner and searching for terms such as Lita, young and preteen.
McGow revealed that he had downloaded and viewed videos but had deleted them and removed them from his computer’s recycle bin so that his partner could not find them.
He also admitted that he knew keyword search terms associated with material depicting the abuse of children.
When his computer was searched the indecent images were discovered in thumbnail cache files, which could only be viewed using special forensic software.
Depute fiscal Claire Bremner said there had been no specific software found which would securely erase deleted data.
Mr Harrower told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court: “He was a plant manager at a plant in Kirkcaldy but lost his job in mid May as he wasn’t able to function properly with this hanging over him.
“He was looking at adult pornography and sometimes that throws up illegal images and he accepts that he went back to look at them.”
He said his client was engaged with Stop it Now! Scotland, a national programme for the prevention of sexual abuse, and was seeing a private psychotherapist as well.
McGow admitted that between April 29 2013 and October 29 2013 at his home address in Dubbieside, Methil, he took or permitted to be taken or made indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children.
Sheriff James Williamson placed McGow on the sex offenders register and deferred sentence for the preparation of social work reports.