A WARPED sex offender caught with nearly 600 images of bestiality had been 'attempting to suppress' his urges for child abuse videos, Greenock Sheriff Court has heard.

Depraved Robert McNab, 34 — who fantasised about raping a baby — had been released from a prison sentence just days before police arrested him for breaching an interim sexual offences prevention order.

Hundreds of extreme pornographic photos of sexual activity between a person and an animal were later found on his mobile phone.

Defence lawyer Gerry Keenan told a sentencing hearing that a 'significant' passage of a background report referred to McNab 'attempting to suppress his inclination towards the type of behaviour he engaged in with regard to previous offences'.

Mr Keenan added: "It would appear that nevertheless his activities online have gone in another direction.

"However there was a desire to avoid the type of criminal behaviour that led to his incarceration previously.

"He didn't look at the type of indecent imagery in his previous offences."

A cleaner at a 'scatter flat' that McNab had been allocated on Greenock's Nelson Street found another mobile phone within a pillow case in his bedroom that contained the images.

There were 579 images of bestiality on the device.

McNab had accessed the images between May 7 and 22 last year.

The Telegraph told in February 2017 how McNab sent his sickening baby rape fantasy to a woman in a Kik messenger text.

He had the sordid conversation stored on a mobile phone that he also used to distribute disgusting child pornography images to other sexual deviants.

The court narration of what those images contained was too horrifying to publish but in one of them a terrified eight-year-old girl was seen to be crying.

Referring to McNab's background and upbringing, Mr Keenan said: "The circumstances in which he was raised are far from ideal.

"He witnessed criminal behaviour and was also a victim of criminal behaviour between the ages of six and nine years.

"It is not altogether surprising that he has difficulty in forming lasting relationships.

"He finds it difficult to subsist in the community and as a result looks for solace in the online community."

Mr Keenan added: "He spends much of his time accessing pornography.

"Crippled by a lack of confidence, he retreats to the comfort of online interactions.

"That plainly does not give any type of excuse, and matters are exacerbated by the fact he was made subject to a sexual offences prevention order which was breached shortly after his release.

"Mr McNab now says that he is willing, able and more enthusiastic than ever to engage in the 'Moving Forward, Making Changes' programme."

Sheriff Joseph Hughes decided to defer sentence on McNab until today.

The sheriff told him: "I find the combination of the two indictments [breach of interim order and images offences] and the nature of the particular charges difficult to reconcile in my mind."