A HAWICK man caught with more than 9,000 indecent images and videos of children on his mobile phone has been jailed for 22 months.

Selkirk Sheriff Court was told the haul included content involving rape.

Thirty-five-year-old Stuart Barnes – who was previously jailed for possessing indecent images of children – downloaded the images onto a mobile phone.

Police, acting on intelligence, seized the device during a search of his ground-floor flat in Drumlanrig Court, Hawick, on August 31, 2022.

Drew Long, prosecuting, said: “Some of the movies were very distressing.”

The court heard a total of 8,995 still images and 223 videos were found on the phone – including 619 images and 11 videos in category A, which is the worst level of offending.

Barnes’ lawyer blamed a difficult childhood and traumatic events surrounding the death of his mother for his client’s behaviour.

But Sheriff Peter Paterson noted he had been convicted of a similar offence before his mother died and said the court would be failing in its duty if a custodial sentence was not imposed.

Barnes was also made subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act for 10 years.