A depraved dad has been jailed after being caught with horrific child sex abuse videos which featured victims as young as six-months-old.
James McCabe was snared with 588 videos totalling nearly 32 hours in length and showing incidents of barbaric torture.
Following his guilty plea, a sheriff ordered McCabe’s computer be forfeited and sent for destruction.
Kids as young as five were tied up with ropes in some of the material discovered on McCabe’s computer unit.
The 61-year-old appeared for sentencing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday.
Sheriff Chris Dickson told McCabe he had amassed a “vast number of images” and jailed him for 16 months.
The sheriff told McCabe he was among the perpetrators who “created demand” for children to be abused.
He also placed McCabe on the sex offenders register for ten years.
McCabe was arrested after cops staged an early morning raid at his home in the city’s Murrayfield area under warrant.
Defence agent Jennifer Cameron told Tuesday’s hearing that McCabe had completed a programme with the Stop It Now! child protection charity.
Ms Cameron said her client had quit his job, which had been a “considerable source of stress”, and addressed his use of alcohol.
She told the court McCabe had made “expressions of remorse” and had a “significant prospect of rehabilitation”.
The court heard last month how cyber crime specialists found 6574 images of child abuse on McCabe’s computer, including 958 at Category A - the worst level - along with 642 at Category B and 4944 at Category C.
Fiscal depute Matthew Miller said the images featured boys and girls aged from six months to 16.
Mr Miller said: “While the majority of files centred on sexual posing, there was a significant number of images present which were described as being particularly graphic, including depictions of the rape of infants.”
The prosecutor said there was material showing children as young as five “tied up with ropes or cord and clearly in distress”.
Mr Miller said there were also images of injuries suffered by a child victim.
The court was told the videos involved boys and girls aged six months to 16. Some 588 videos were found - 460 at Category A with 111 at Category B and 17 at Category C.
McCabe pled guilty to possessing the sick collection at his home between April 14 2020 and September 9 2021.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - sign up to our daily newsletter here .
