A man who secretly viewed more than a thousand images of youngsters being sexually abused has been jailed

Kevin Donnelly — assessed as being of 'high risk' of reoffending — spent hours at a time poring over the vile material as his deviant behaviour spanned three years.

A background report on the pervert concluded that he had 'not a great deal of empathy' for the children who had been hideously exploited, Greenock Sheriff Court heard.

Sheriff Derek Hamilton remarked that for every image of the 1,328 pictures viewed by Donnelly, 34, a child had been sexually abused.

Donnelly trawled stomach-churning websites and downloaded acts of the worst category of sexual abuse as he maintained a facade of being a devoted family man.

The court heard previously how he obtained 'sexual gratification' from viewing the material between Christmas Eve in 2015 and October last year.

Defence lawyer Gerry Keenan said: "He is no longer working as a direct consequence of being prosecuted in this matter.

"He resigned from his job.

"There appears to be an escalation of his conduct.

"His initial activities were non-criminal.

"What appears to have happened is a gradual degeneration of images whereby it became criminal, and increased.

"It is accepted that the images at category A are exceptionally serious."

Solicitor Mr Keenan added: "He involved himself in this activity when he had been drinking and his mood was low.

"He had feelings of self-loathing and had an urge to do what he did and regretted it."

The court heard that, despite his risk of reoffending, Donnelly had been deemed 'suitable' for a community-based sentence and to 'get treatment'.

But Sheriff Hamilton ruled that there was no alternative to prison in the case.

The lawman told Donnelly: "The period over which you downloaded this material is an aggravating factor.

"There was frequent viewing, and over periods of hours.

"There was planning and intensity to this behaviour, and number of the images are of the most serious category."

Donnelly, of Greenock, was living with his partner and her pre-school age children when he committed his crimes.

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

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

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

Donnelly is now in the early stages of a 12-month prison sentence, reduced from 16 months due to his guilty plea.

Sheriff Hamilton has also placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years, and on a list of people unsuitable to work with children and protected adults.