A PAEDOPHILE who admitted having tens of thousands of images of youngsters being sexually abused has moved out of his parents’ West Lothian home after living with them for 20 years.

Alexander Dickson, who now lives in Inverkeithing, pleaded guilty to possessing indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children at an address in Broxburn.

When the 40-year-old pervert appeared at Livingston Sheriff Court on Monday he admitted he had been downloading vile images and videos for almost a decade, from April 5, 2011, until police raided his dad’s home on February 17, 2021.

Connor Muir, prosecuting, said Police Scotland had received intelligence in February 2021 that there could be indecent images of children at Dickson’s then address in West Hall Road, Broxburn.

A search warrant was granted by a sheriff on February 12 and officers executed the search warrant on February 17.

Dickson had already left for work and his father Robert, who was alone in the house, let them in.

Mr Muir said officers seized a number of items of electronic equipment which contained indecent images.

On a laptop belonging to the accused they found 3,000 images of females between eight and 16.

The majority were in category C – showing youngsters posing in a sexual way – but a number of category A and B images showing child rape and serious sexual abuse were also found.

Mr Muir said the photographs were dated from September 21, 2015, to February 13, 2021, and were all accessible on the device.

The second item seized was a USB storage stick which contained 77 indecent images of children in category A, 22 in category B, and 520 still images and a video film in category C.

A further 20,000 images were uncategorised but all featured females aged between three and 15 and had been made between April 15 and June 27, 2021. Again, all were accessible to the user of the device.

Police traced and arrested the accused and seized his mobile phone, which was found to contain a few category C images and a further 28,000 photographs still to be graded.

Mr Muir said: “The images were of females aged approximately 12-years-old posing sexually. These were found in a folder on the handset dated July 12, 2020.

“The accused was cautioned and charged and made no reply.”

Stuart Peebles, defending, said he would reserve his plea in mitigation until his client was sentenced.

Sheriff Martin Edington called for criminal justice social work background reports and a restriction of liberty order assessment.

He added Dickson’s name to the sex offenders’ register with immediate effect and told him he would learn how long his name would remain on the register when he returned for sentence on December 23.