A CHARITY boss has been placed on the sex register despite claiming child pornography images found on his computer had been put there by hackers.

William Wood told a court his laptop had been targeted by crooks who downloaded the indecent images of children as young as four-years-old to the device before then deleting them.

Retired IT expert Wood said he had no knowledge of the disgusting images – some at the most serious end of the scale – when police raided his home in December 2015.

The 61-year-old, who ran African child education charity The Dignity Project, said his Twitter and bank accounts had previously been targeted by criminals.

He added the horrific pictures must have been downloaded to his computer without his knowledge.

But Wood was deemed to be lying when a jury unanimously found him guilty of two charges of possessing and downloading indecent of images of children at his home in Corstorphine, following a two-day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

The court heard traces of 138 images and one horrific movie were found on three devices at the Edinburgh home Wood shares with wife Barbara, 70.

Police Scotland forensic expert DC Alan McConnell said the files had been deleted but said traces of the search terms and file names were still embedded in their device.

He added the disturbing movie had been downloaded to Wood’s computer in November 2015 and had been viewed twice before being deleted.

Sheriff Fiona Tait deferred full sentence.