Edinburgh man caught with thousands of indecent images of kids jailed for 12 months

Sickening haul found at his Wester Hailes home

An Edinburgh man who was caught with thousands of indecent images of children has been jailed for 12 months.

Thomas Carroll was found to be in possession of more than 2800 images of young children being sexually abused by adults when police raided his home last year. Carroll was caught with a large haul of horrific pictures - including depictions of youngsters being raped - that he had collected over a near four-year period.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told the 58-year-old was found with a total of 2823 still images and 634 videos of abused children at his flat at Drovers Bank at the Wester Hailes area of the capital. Police officers received intelligence about the downloading of the material and turned up at Carroll’s home with search warrant at around 8.15am on December 20 last year.

Thomas Carroll pictured outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Fiscal depute Jennifer McLaren told the court two mobile phones, two USB devices and a laptop were seized from the home. A subsequent cyber crime investigation showed three of the devices held thousands of indecent images of children.

Carroll admitted to possessing indecent images of children between January 9, 2019 and December 20 last year when he appeared at the city court last month. He returned to the dock for sentencing on Wednesday morning where Sheriff Ian Anderson jailed him for 12 months. Carroll was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.

Carroll attempted to hide his identity from the press after pleading guilty last month by wearing a black face mask and cap when leaving the court building.