A Tranent man caught with a collection of child abuse images, involving children as young as eight years old, has been remanded in custody.

James Luby was found to be in possession of the pictures and videos of youngsters being sexually abused by adults when police raided his home on the town’s Blawearie Road last year.

Luby, 59, had been storing hundreds of the child abuse images – some at the worst end of the spectrum – on his mobile phone over a two month period in 2019.

He was due to be sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this month after previously admitting the offence in front of Sheriff Chris Dickson in September.

But when the case called, lawyer Cameron Tait said his client was not in attendance and a non-appearance warrant was issued for his arrest.

Luby then appeared in the dock from custody at the city court last Wednesday where the sheriff was told he had not attended meetings for required social work reports to be written.

He was subsequently remanded in custody and will return to court to be sentenced on Wednesday.

Fiscal depute Susan Dickson had told the court that police officers arrived at Luby’s home with a search warrant and were greeted at the front door by his elderly mother on March 18 last year.

Officers conducted a search of the property and found a mobile phone with three Category A and two Category B movies “depicting male and female children” hidden in the mobile’s trash folder.

The fiscal said the children involved were aged between eight and 12-years old and showed “sexual activity with children and adult men”.

Ms Dickson said a further examination of the device uncovered a total of 282 child abuse images along with 73 movies showing the sexual abuse of children.

The fiscal told the court there were 118 images and 20 videos rated as Category A – considered to be the most depraved.

Sheriff Dickson placed Luby on the sex offenders’ register on an interim basis pending full sentencing later this month.

Luby pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home address between January 22 and March 18, 2019.

He also admitted to an offence of taking, or allowing to be taken, indecent images of children between the same dates.