A SALTCOATS sex offender snared with almost 20,000 indecent images of children as young as two told police that the sickening haul may have already been on devices he bought from car boot sales.

Keith Taylor's disgusting hoard of photographs included both male and female children aged between two and 14.

The 59-year-old pleaded guilty to one charge in relation to possessing the pictures collected over seven years between April 2016 and May 2023 - when he appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court this week.

A hearing on Tuesday was told that he had previously tried to relinquish his links to the images in a police interview.

Taylor was first arrested after officers searched his property on Argyle Road on May 3 last year, procurator fiscal depute Gemma McKechnie told the court.

A police search warrant resulted in several devices being seized, including two laptops and four hard drives.

After he was detained, Taylor was interviewed by officers and stated that he purchased the hard drives from car boot sales - and that material may have already been on these when they were bought.

He did, however, confirm the devices belonged to him and provided the relevant usernames and passwords.

A full cyber crime examination of the devices was later carried out and uncovered the extent of the explicit content.

A total of 18,982 still images were contained across the devices, 15,759 of which were described as "unique and accessible".

Prosecutors broke this down further to be 3,365 category A images, 3,665 category B photographs and 8,729 images described as being category C.

Category A images or videos involve penetrative sexual activity, category B includes non-penetrative sexual activity and category C involves erotic posing.

The remaining 3,223 images were inaccessible, and noted as 3,161 category A, 12 category B and 50 category C.

A further 611 unique, accessible moving images were contained within the six devices and listed as 240 category A, 143 category B and 228 category C videos.

Another 51 files were inaccessible and classified as 12 category A, 18 category B and 21 category C moving images.

Defence solicitor Gordon Ghee asked that sentence be deferred for Taylor until background reports could be prepared.

He asked that his client be allowed bail until the next hearing, stating that he had complied with all special conditions set out when this was first granted following his initial court appearance in June of last year.

Sheriff George Jamieson agreed to call for reports, delaying sentence until the new year - granting Taylor bail until that date.

He was added to the sex offenders register in the meantime.