A GOUROCK man has been placed on the sex offenders register after he admitted having more than a thousand indecent images of children, some of whom were just three years old, on a device at his home.

Jack Morgan appeared at a pre-trial hearing at Greenock Sheriff Court this week, where he pleaded guilty to two indictment charges.

The 37-year-old admitted being in possession of 1,006 photographs or pseudo-photographs of children, as well as attempting to communicate indecently with someone he believed to be a child via an online messaging platform.

The court that an undercover police officer, who was posing as a 12-year-old girl named ‘Ellie’, had created profiles on platforms and websites in a bid to identify offenders with a sexual interest in children.

On July 12, 2021, 'Ellie' was sent an invitation to chat with a user on the platform.

Jack Morgan was released on bail following a hearing at Greenock Sheriff Court. (Image: Newsquest)

The officer accepted the invitation and replied to the initial message, with conversations taking place in the months following and lasting until December 13 that year.

A fiscal depute told the court that the messages were ‘of a sexual nature’ and were sent from a device connected to the internet at Morgan’s home address in Albert Road.

Police executed a search warrant at the property shortly before 9am on February 26, 2022.

A systematic search of the flat was carried out, with a black iPhone being recovered from under a bed.

Morgan provided police with the passcode for the device and was later arrested and taken to Greenock police office.

He was interviewed later that day and ‘made admissions’ in relation to conversations he'd had on a chat platform.

The iPhone was examined by cyber crime officers, who recovered a number of still images and one category C moving image.

Jack Morgan pleaded guilty to two charges during a pre-trial hearing. (Image: Newsquest)

Of the still images found on the device, 235 were classified as falling under the most serious category A.

A total of 196 were deemed to be category B, with 575 being categorised as category C.

The court heard that the photographs depicted male and female children aged between three and 15.

Morgan’s defence solicitor said: “Mr Morgan understands the serious nature of what he has pled guilty to.”

Morgan had also been charged with being in possession of extreme pornographic images depicting bestiality, and a second allegation of communicating with an undercover police officer posing as a child, but his pleas of not guilty were accepted by the Crown.

Sheriff Anthony McGeehan deferred sentencing until October 30 to allow for the preparation of background reports.

Morgan was released on bail.