An Aberdeen mum has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after she admitted sharing child pornography with paedophiles in the US in exchange for mobile phone top-ups.
Thirty-three-year-old Pauline Judge posed as teenage girls on online chat rooms to entice the sex-offenders in America to talk to her.
She would then send them dozens of indecent images of children she had found on the internet with the condition that they paid for her mobile credit.
Yesterday, Judge appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and pled guilty to sharing and making child porn from her home 59 Willowpark Crescent, Aberdeen.
The court heard officers had received intelligence that Judge had been talking about the obscene images of children online with another user in America.
After a search warrant was executed at her house police found a number of devices, including an Ipod, which contained a total of 416 pictures and six videos.
The court heard the images which contained children being raped and abused featured babies as young as six months old up to teenagers aged 15.
Fiscal depute Felicity Merson said: “It was in June last year that intelligence was received that between the 22nd of February 2013 and the 8th of March 2013, a UK-based internet user was in communication with a US-based internet user.
“The parties engaged in chat related to indecent images of children.”
The court heard that police officers had explained the nature of the intelligence they had received when they visited her home.
Mrs Merson said: “She was cautioned and intimated that she had sent indecent images in return for top-up credits on her mobile phone.”
Forensic examinations also found that a number of photographs had been exchanged with other internet users.
It was not possible for officers to ascertain what images were sent but the text related to prepubescent girls.
The court heard that it appeared to be the case that Judge had pretended to be a teenager when engaging in the chats.
Evidence also revealed that the computer user had visited chat rooms where people had an interest in chatting about sex with youngsters and babies.
Judge, who pled guilty to two charges of making and distributing indecent photographs of children between January 10, 2012 and June 27 last year, will return to court next month.