A paedophile who was caught out by a social media mishap has avoided imprisonment.
Mark Thompson, from Cardenden, admitted to possessing child abuse images for over a decade.
Thompson, of Main Street, owned a computer tower and hard drive filled with the vile images and was snared after he posting one on Facebook.
The category C image was uploaded to the social media platform in July 2019.
He later claimed he did not gain sexual pleasure from them but just liked looking at them.
Voyeuristic images
While some had been deleted, experts were able to show he had downloaded almost 800 indecent images.
At a previous court date, Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard that a “large number” of the images were voyeuristic pictures of females, including children as young as 10 but that these images were considered “indicative”.
The external hard drive contained images downloaded using the Limewire file-sharing service.
Employment on the line
Earlier this year, Thompson pled guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home or elsewhere from June 22 2009 until December 15 2019.
The 61-year-old’s job, which sometimes involves contact with children, remains on the line, as his lawyer Brian Black explained there would be a hearing pending the outcome of Friday’s sentencing.
Mr Black said: “His work are awaiting the sentence outcome to see if there are risks which are involved.
“He very much regrets his actions and wants to learn from them.
“He is mindful that this is a serious matter and the court could consider a custodial sentence.
“From the get go in this case, he has accepted his responsibility.”
Sheriff James Williamson placed Thompson under supervision for two years and added his name to the sex offender’s register for the same period of time.
The sheriff also ordered Thompson to complete 160 hours of unpaid work over the next 12 months.
He said: “The bottom line is, the way he avoids going to prison is through a community payback order.”
