A senior, formerly well-respected renewable energy analyst, Simon Luby, is facing jail after admitting collecting more than 45,800 images and 458 videos of girls as young as four being sexually abused.

Luby, who until April was the UK managing director of wind power consultancy K2 Management and its head of due diligence, admitted the charges at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in Scotland on Monday after being arrested on 23 July last year following a tip-off that he had shared indecent images.

Thousands of the images and videos were classed as Category A, showing the most serious offences, and he had been collecting them over a period of 18 years, according to the Scottish Sun.

Prosecutor Kirsty Urquhart told the court: “Police found a number of electronic devices including laptops, hard drives, mobile phones and an iPod.

“At 9.18am the accused approached two officers and said ‘If you find anything it will be on those two’, pointing to a Toshiba hard drive and a Thinkpad laptop.”

The court also heard that when police arrested the 45-year-old married father-of-two, he said: “I think I have autism. Once I start something I can’t stop. I think there’s been a great deal of stupidity.”

Luby’s lawyer Gordon Ghee told the sheriff that he has lost his job and his wife has left him. “He is living with his parents and has no contact with his children.”

He left the company earlier this year and we didn’t know anything about this until this week.

Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane deferred sentencing until later this month, but warned Luby: “Given the vast number of images, custody is upmost in my mind. You might want to get your affairs in order before you return to see me.”

K2’s chief marketing officer, Michael Holm, told Recharge: “He left the company earlier this year and we didn’t know anything about this until this week.”

Luby — who Recharge interviewed as recently as late February — quit his job in April saying he wanted to take a career break.

He wrote on his LinkedIn profile: “I'm taking an extended career break, until late 2019/early 2020 to focus on my parents and family and to take the time needed to carefully consider what new direction I should take, including a change of industry and/or scenery, going freelance and also taking the time needed to understand the positive implications of probably being ‘on the spectrum’.”

Luby had previously worked for Sgurr Energy, Mott MacDonald and ScottishPower Technology, according to the LinkedIn profile.