James Maxwell, 28, of Leven in Fife, paid £1,000 in cryptocurrency to buy the self-loading pistol and bullets.

His plans were thwarted after US law enforcement officers searched and found a Glock 17 handgun and ammunition in a UK-bound mail package which included Maxwell’s address and phone number and immediately alerted Police Scotland.

Four days later, a package containing the Glock gun box and two ammunition boxes was delivered to Maxwell’s home and officers arrived with a search warrant and found it in his bedroom.

Maxwell was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh after he pled guilty to purchasing and attempting to acquire and possess a prohibited weapon between 1 December last year and 11 January this year.

He also admitted buying and attempting to acquire and possess the ammunition and attempting to import the firearm and bullets without lawful authority.

He further admitted possessing an indecent Category A video of a child and possessing extreme pornographic images involving animals.

Sineidin Corrins, deputy procurator fiscal for specialist casework at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: “James Maxwell has been prosecuted in the High Court in relation to a number of very serious offences by trying to import a handgun and ammunition into Scotland.

“This weapon could have been used for devastating purposes. But thanks to the work of law enforcement agencies and close collaboration with COPFS, this gun was removed from criminal circulation and the accused will now spend a significant period in prison as a result of his criminal actions.”

The court heard how during the search of Maxwell’s home officers found an opened laptop which contained an instruction manual for assembling a Glock pistol.

The PDF file had been created on 10 January 2023, and had last been looked at on 11 January.

Prosecutors told the court that the ammunition purchased by Maxwell amounted to 100 rounds of 9mm, hollow-pointed bulleted cartridges.

This type of ammunition is designed to deform on impact, increasing the surface area of the bullet and causing increased injury.

Subsequent investigations of the laptop also showed Maxwell had carried out searches that included “primary school in Glasgow”, the “Dunblane school massacre” and “when do schools break up for Christmas 2022?”.