A DUNFERMLINE man has appeared in court and been sentenced for being in possession of indecent movies of children.

Police carried out a search at the home of Kevin Mackie after receiving information from their cyber-crime unit and obtaining a search warrant.

Mackie, 44, of Petrel Way, appeared for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

He admitted that between June 18-19 at his home he was in possession of indecent images of children.

Defence solicitor Ralph McCran said his client had lost his job after his guilty plea but had now found another job as a network engineer.

He said his client lived on his own and one of the issues he faced was “isolation”.

“He accepts there is no excuse for this offending and accepts responsibility for what he did,” added the solicitor.

Sheriff Charles MacNair said: “Downloading child pornography using file-sharing software is a very serious matter and is one that the court has to deal with all too frequently.”

The sheriff commented that he could only sentence Mackie for the images on the libel even though he had admitted to deleting others.

He imposed a community payback order with three years’ supervision and 180 hours of unpaid work. Mackie was also placed on the sex offenders' register for three years.