A 54-year-old Inverness man has admitted possessing nearly 900 child pornography images and videos and distributing another 400 through internet chatrooms.
Mark Handlin, of Telford Road, pleaded guilty to both charges at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson deferred sentence until February 9 for the production of a background report and placed Handlin on the sex offenders register.
Handlin admitted between August 7, 2014, and February 29 last year, at his home address, possessing and distributing indecent photographs of children.
Fiscal depute Michelle Molley told Inverness Sheriff Court that police entered Handlin’s home at 9.30am on February 29 last year based on intelligence they had received.
She said: “Officers received three devices – one white mobile phone, a black mobile phone and a tablet device.
“The black mobile phone contained three e-mail accounts. He shared images of small children between ages one and 16 years, between August 7, 2014 and February 29, 2016, using Messenger apps.”
Ms Molley said that on this mobile phone there were 186 images of the most sensitive type, category A, another 185 category B and 490 images under category C.
There were also a total of 19 indecent child videos spanning all three categories.
Ms Molley said that, on the white mobile phone, Handlin had “shared and distributed” indecent images and videos between July 29, 2015 and February 29, 2016 using Messenger apps.
On this phone he had shared 145 indecent images of the most sensitive category A type, another 125 images under category B and 125 under category C.
A total of 83 videos were recorded and distributed.
Ms Molley added that the sharing took place by use of a “dropbox” – an online link to a collection of pictures – through an internet chatroom.
Handlin first appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court in connection with the charges on March 2 last year, and made no plea and was committed for further examination and released on bail.