A FATHER and son from Johnstone were spared jail yesterday for hoarding horrific child abuse images at the home they shared.

William McCreadie, 63, and son Daniel, 26, were found to have separate stashes of films and pictures of children being raped.

They were snared after computer geek Daniel - whose Facebook page is littered with provocative sketches of women crossed with Pokemon - began downloading the illegal images.

The pair landed in the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court after police searched bedrooms at their former flat in Elm Drive in November last year.

Officers found a combined total of 3,079 illegal images, spread between a PC tower in Daniel's room and a stack of DVDs hidden in a drawer under his dad's bed - labelled "warning: dad only."

The details emerged last month when the pair appeared at court for a pre-trial hearing.

William McCreadie pleaded guilty to being in possession of indecent photographs of children at his home on November 27, 2015, in breach of Section 52A(1) of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.

In August, his son pleaded guilty to a charge that he downloaded child abuse images over a three-and-a-half-year period, at the same address, between April 5, 2012, and November 27, 2015.

Procurator fiscal depute Scot Dignan said police received intelligence that someone at the address had been accessing indecent images of children.

The intelligence related to the internet use of Daniel, who has also littered his Facebook account with photographs of his computer game collection.

Officers obtained a search warrant and went to search the McCreadies' home at 8am.

The prosecutor explained: "Two bedrooms were searched - the first was Daniel McCreadie's, the second was William McCreadie's.

"I should say at this point the relationship between the accused is father and son.

"In the bedroom belonging to Daniel McCreadie, an Acer computer tower was located. He indicated to police it belonged to him.

"In the bedroom of William McCreadie, officers recovered 150 discs, under his bed in a drawer and also on the TV unit. He indicated most of the discs belonged to him and he was the only person that used them.

"Some of the discs had handwritten labels that said 'dad only' and 'warning: dad only'."

Both men were detained and taken to a police station, where they gave "no comment" interviews and were then arrested.

Police carried out forensic analysis of the computers and found that Daniel had used peer-to-peer software, which allows other computer users to share files together, to download 3,033 files.

His sickening stash contained 18 of the most extreme abuse images there is - including one which showed a one-year-old girl being raped by a grown man.

Of the 150 discs found in William's bedroom, 31 contained indecent images of children.

He was found to have a total of 46 illegal files, 40 of which were rated as the most extreme there is and showed girls aged between four and 14 being raped by, and forced to perform sex acts on, grown men.

When both men returned to court yesterday to learn their fate, Sheriff David Pender spared them jail sentences.

He ordered Daniel to carry out 220 hours of unpaid work in the next nine months as part of a Community Payback Order (CPO) which will see him supervised by social workers for the next three years.

His dad was also made the subject of a CPO, which will see him supervised for the same length of time while carrying out 100 hours of unpaid work.