Thomas Aitken, 32, was caught with the images — some of which featured bestiality — when police raided his home at Bryson Street in 2013.

Aitken pled guilty to having 13 illegal porn images on his computer at an earlier hearing and appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Tuesday for sentencing.

Fiscal depute Isobel Martin said the case was deferred several times as Aitken’s defence agent had requested more detail on what the images depicted but police refused to analyse them in detail.

She said: “From a health and safety point of view of the police officers preparing these reports, it was felt that it could be harrowing enough to view but to sit down and detail what each photograph contained would be simply too much.” She quoted from an email the officer sent her refusing to carry out a detailed analysis, which stated: “It is bad enough for my staff to view these images all day but to have to microanalyse them and detail them is a lot worse.” Aitken’s laywer, Tom Brown, said Aitken was very candid with social workers who prepared a background report on him after he pleaded guilty, telling them the offence “wasn’t a one-off.” He added that Aitken would “benefit from some assistance.” Sheriff Gallacher warned Aitken that accessing porn of the type he did was not a‘victimless crime’.

He said: “There are victims in these crimes and there are people involved in these crimes.” The sheriff sentenced the Faifley man to 100 hours of unpaid work and ordered that he is supervised for 15 months.