A TEACHER has been jailed for three and a half years after downloading some of the worst child pornographic images a sheriff has encountered.

Strathclyde Police had been alerted to Alan Nardoni's activities in 2006 but took no action, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.

Instead, the 36-year-old, who worked for Aberdeenshire Council at Portlethen Academy near Aberdeen and coached the under-14 boys' football team, continued to make a huge collection on the computer he used to store his schoolwork. It included the abuse of a baby that Sheriff Margaret Neilson said was "truly dreadful".

She told Nardoni: "The detail of some of the photographs and videos are probably the worst I have had the misfortune to listen to.

"This is not a victimless crime. Each and every one of these children has suffered abuse, in some cases absolutely horrific abuse, and the physical and emotional damage they have suffered is difficult to imagine."

Nardoni, of Loanhead Street, Kilmarnock, who earlier had sentence deferred for a background report, was told at Inverness Sheriff Court he was "at high risk of causing serious harm and it would be unsafe for you to be managed in the community".

Aberdeenshire Council said Nardoni had been on "alternative duties away from the classroom" with no contact with children pending the outcome of the case and would now be subject to the council's disciplinary proceedings.

Nardoni, 36, admitted amassing at least 1141 videos and 5904 images on two laptops, a memory stick and several CDs and DVDs. Many depicted boys being sexually abused. He admitted poss­essing the illegal images and distributing those images between February 18, 2006 and August 7, 2012 at addresses in Cumbernauld, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock.

His videos and photographs contained abuse involving girls but mostly boys aged one to 15, including two videos of baby boys being sexually assaulted.

The court was told Nardoni first came to the attention of police in June 2006 when an image was downloaded from a website used to exchange indecent images of children using an IP address assigned to Nardoni's home at Hornbeam Road, Abronhill, Cumbernauld.

Fiscal depute Iain Smith told the court: "This information was disseminated to Strathclyde Police. However, it would appear no action was taken."

The same file share site was accessed between June 25 and 29, 2011 from an IP address allocated to Nardoni's address at Broomhill Road, Aberdeen. Grampian Police obtained a search warrant in August 2011 when computer equipment, including a memory stick, laptop, CDs and DVDs were seized.

Mr Smith said Nardoni could give no explanation why the sites were accessed from his address.

Mr Smith went on: "The following day, he went back to the police station and told police he had told them lies the previous day and, in fact, he was gay."

Mr Smith said Nardoni claimed a man called Darren who came from Glasgow and worked in computers had left CDs in his Cumbernauld flat when he came to stay with him.

"He said he put on one of the CDs to find it contained under age pictures and videos," he said.

On January 5, 2012 he was charged by police and blamed 'Darren' for the images found on a memory stick in his Aberdeen flat.