A guesthouse boss snared with a haul of child sex abuse videos after a raid by cops has dodged a jail term.
Ian Hamilton was caught with dozens of sick videos on a computer hard drive in the police swoop.
The 75-year-old had material showing male and female youngsters aged between six and 12 being sexually abused.
Hamilton appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday for sentencing after the case was deferred for reports.
Sheriff Chris Dickson put Hamilton under supervision for 18 months and ordered him to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work.
Sheriff Dickson also imposed conduct requirements on Hamilton, including banning him from contact with children under 16 without permission from his supervisor.
Hamilton was put on the sex offenders register for 18 months.
The court was told his guesthouse had gone out of business.
Last month Hamilton admitted possessing indecent images of children between June 11 2021 and June 27 last year.
Fiscal depute Gillian Koren told that hearing how police officers went to Hamilton’s home at the guesthouse in the city’s Murrayfield area on June 27 last year.
Ms Koren said police seized an external hard drive which was later analysed by cyber crime specialists.
She said 39 videos at Category A - the worst level - were found, 24 of which were accessible.
Fifteen Category B videos were also identified, six of them accessible, the court was told.
The prosecutor said 3 Category C videos, two of which were accessible, and one Category C image was found.
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