A HOTEL manager recorded himself sexually abusing a sleeping child and sent the images to online perverts he was in contact with, a court was told this week.

Anthony McKnight made the videos involving a young boy he had met while on a family holiday in Wales last year.

McKnight, 38, filmed four short recordings of him abusing the child, as well as taking photos of the youngster as he carried out a solo sex act.

The images were uncovered after police were tipped off that McKnight was in possession of child abuse images and raided his home on Hepburn Road in Haddington earlier this year.

Specialist officers seized a mobile phone and two laptops during the search and, following a cybercrime examination of the devices, a total of 4,823 images and 155 videos were found.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that the category A material – the most serious – included images of newborn babies being sexually abused by adults and children being forced to engage in sexual acts with animals.

McKnight appeared from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing, taking or making and distributing indecent images of children between July 7, 2020, and June 7 this year.

Footage found

Fiscal depute Matthew Miller told the court that police received intelligence McKnight was in possession of indecent images of children and arrived at his home with a search warrant at about 7am on June 26.

Mr Miller said that the haul of images were located in a hidden folder on his iPhone and, following a forensic examination of the electronic device, material was found showing McKnight abusing a young boy.

The court heard that the pictures and videos had been taken by McKnight himself after meeting the child on holiday in Wales in December last year.

The fiscal said that chat log evidence was also discovered that showed McKnight had shared the footage of him and the boy with others he was in contact with online.

Sheriff Alistair Noble remanded McKnight in custody and placed him on the sex offenders' register on an interim basis.

Full sentence was deferred for the preparation of social work reports and a risk assessment to later this month.

McKnight, who was recently working as a manager at an Edinburgh city centre hotel, was also in the headlines two years ago when he was caught stealing money from a terminally ill pensioner while employed as the man’s carer.

On that occasion, he was caught after the victim’s daughter set up a camera trap as she had begun noticing her father was either “misplacing or losing” small sums of money.

READ MORE: Camera trap caught carer stealing from terminally ill pensioner, 84

The footage proved that the carer was stealing the money and he was subsequently reported to the police.

He admitted to a charge of stealing a quantity of cash from 84-year-old Kenneth Samuel while employed as a carer at an address in Haddington on June 21, 2021.

At that time, McKnight was fined £110 and ordered to pay compensation of £100 during an appearance at Edinburgh Justice of the Peace Court in December 2022.