A PAEDOPHILE pored over more than a thousand indecent images of youngsters whilst living with his partner and her young children.

Kevin Donnelly secretly trawled sickening websites and downloaded hideous acts of the worst kind of sexual abuse as he maintained a facade of being a devoted family man.

Donnelly, 34, obtained 'sexual gratification' from viewing the material between Christmas Eve in 2015 and October last year, a hushed Greenock Sheriff Court was told.

Prosecutor Saud Ul Hassan said: "The accused had visited various websites known to post child sexual exploitation videos.

"There were a total of 1,328 indecent images found."

The court heard how Donnelly, of Greenock, was living with his partner and her pre-school age children when he downloaded and hoarded the material behind her back.

He was caught after police carried out an intelligence-led dawn raid on the east end property and seized a laptop computer and a separate hard drive.

Donnelly's partner was initially under suspicion along with him but was later released without charge after being interviewed separately from him at Greenock police office.

Fiscal depute Mr Ul Hassan said: "At 7.30am on October 18 last year police attended and were permitted entry by the accused's partner.

"The young children were also present, the accused and his partner were both cautioned and an arrangement was made for the partner's father to collect the children prior to a search commencing.

"Computer equipment was seized in the form of an Hitachi hard drive and an Asus laptop and the presence of indecent images of children was detected.

"Both devices were sent to cybercrime experts in order to be formally examined."

Of the 1,328 images found on the devices, 28 were classed as category A material, 33 category B and 1,267 category C, the court was told.

Donnelly pleaded guilty on indictment to a charged of having possession of a quantity of indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children.

Mr Ul Hassan said: "The accused and his partner were detained and conveyed to Greenock police office.

"The accused was interviewed and he initially denied any involvement, then admitted to viewing the indecent images and obtaining sexual gratification from them.

"His partner was released without charge after being interviewed."

Sheriff Derek Hamilton placed Donnelly on the Sex Offenders Register with immediate effect and deferred sentence on him until September 5 for a string of background reports.

Defence lawyer Charles Drummond reserved his plea in mitigation on behalf of Donnelly until the sentencing hearing.