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An Edinburgh man who attempted to blame his haul of child abuse images on his dead partner has escaped a jail sentence.

Paul Marr, 48, was found in possession of a shocking collection of indecent images of children - including one movie depicting the rape of a six-year-old child- when police raided his home last year. Marr downloaded the disgusting material to two laptops over a 17 month period that showed boys and girls being sexually abused by adults. And following his arrest vile Marr attempted to lessen his involvement by telling officers “my previous partner who is dead used them also”.

Marr, of the capital’s Craigmillar, pleaded guilty to possessing the images when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month and he returned to the dock for sentencing yesterday. (THUR)

Sheriff Donald Corke said: “This is obviously a serious matter and far from a victimless crime. However I do take account of the fact that you pled guilty to a much reduced period [of offending]. You are a first offender and the criminal justice social work report is favourable so in those circumstances I am able to consider a non-custodial sentence.”

Marr was sentenced to a community payback order as a direct alternative to custody whereby he will be supervised by the social work department for the next 18 months. Marr was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 18 months.

Previously the court was told Marr’s home was raided by officers from Police Scotland’s Online Child Abuse and Exploitation team at around 8am on October 22 last year.

Fiscal depute Rosie Cook said Marr was at home alone and had informed officers he had been sent links while engaged in online chats with fellow paedophiles.

Marr said he had opened the links but then immediately deleted the images when he saw what they contained. Two laptops were seized and forensically analysed by cyber crime officers and the devices were found to hold 105 images and three videos. Ms Cook said the indecent images featured both boys and girls with one movie showing the rape of a six year old female child by an adult male.

The court was told when Marr was arrested he told officers: “I hadn’t used them for ages. My previous partner who is dead used them also.” The fiscal also said Marr’s laptops were found to contain file deletion software which could be used in an attempt to hide his download history.

Marr pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children between May 15, 2015 and October 16, 2016.

Edinburgh crime: Paul Marr avoids jail after being caught with child abuse haul