// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Pensioner had 'largest hoard' of child abuse images to be seized in Scotland
Alan MacPherson wore a hooded jacket as he was led away to custody after the court appearance
A pensioner amassed what is thought to be the largest collection of child sexual abuse material ever seized by police in Scotland, a court has heard.
Alan MacPherson, 83, from Stenhousemuir, was found to have over two million images on various electronic devices after his home was raided in 2025.
More than 805,000 were formally identified as depicting child sexual abuse - much of it of the most serious category - while the overwhelming scale of his collection meant much of material was not examined.
MacPherson, who admitted downloading the material over a 14-year period, was placed on the sex offenders register and remanded in custody at Falkirk Sheriff Court pending pre-sentence reports.
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The court heard that the size of the hoard recovered from MacPherson's home was so large it had "overwhelmed" officers' capacity to check and categorise it.
Altogether, police seized nine devices – computers, phones, digital cameras, a USB stick and external drives – and indecent images of children were found on all of them.
Five of the devices were subjected to a full examination.
Nearly 1.4 million images remained ungraded on just one of his devices alone.