A 31-year-old man downloaded images of child pornography because he believed his family would then accept his suicide, a court has heard.
Christopher Morrison's solicitor told Inverness Sheriff Court it was a deliberate attempt to get caught.
Morrison, of Lochs, Lewis, had not wanted his family to face the stigma of him planning to take his life.
He was placed on probation for three years and ordered to carry out 225 hours of community service.
Morrison was also placed on the sex offenders register for three years.
"This was a deliberate attempt to get found out, he wanted to bring his life to an end"
He also admitted having in his possession photographs or pseudo photographs of children between those dates.
Depute fiscal Stella Swan told the court that police attention turned on Morrison following a joint American and Canadian operation targeting child pornography on the internet.
Investigators located a chat room on the subject and passed on the names of people in the UK visiting it.
Ms Swan said 968 images were found on Morrison's computer.
'Abhorrent images'
Angus Macdonald, defending, said the offences were a matter of great shame for Morrison and his family.
He said his client had set out three years ago to be convicted of "these dreadful offences" as he believed his family would accept his intended suicide.
Mr Macdonald said Morrison had been bullied at school and had suffered depression for years at the time of committing the offences.
He said Morrison knew plenty about computers but had left the images on his computer so they would be easy to find by anyone.
Mr Macdonald said: "This was a deliberate attempt to get found out, he wanted to bring his life to an end."
Sheriff Alexander Pollock said the images Morrison had downloaded could only be regarded as "abhorrent images which involve the exploitation of the young for the sake of the internet market".
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