An Aberdeen mum who admitted sharing child pornography with paedophiles in the US in exchange for mobile phone top-ups has blamed her actions on the death of her father.
Pauline Judge posed as teenage girls on online chat rooms to entice sex offenders in America to talk to her.
She would then send them dozens of indecent images of children that she had found on the internet with the condition that they paid for her mobile credit.
This morning Judge appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to be sentenced, having previously admitted sharing and making child porn from her home at 59 Willowpark Crescent.
However sentence was deferred for another month after the court heard her life “spiralled out of control” following the death of her father when she was just 13.
Representing the 33-year-old, solicitor Tony Burgess said his client had felt “a great sense of relief” when she was caught by police officers who had received intelligence that she had been talking online about obscene images of children with someone 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 showed children being raped and abused, featured babies as young as six-months-old and youngsters aged up to 15.
Mr Burgess said Judge was a very “sad lonely, desperate and depressed” woman whose life had been on a downward spiral. He said she felt being caught was an opportunity to get out of the situation she had found herself in.
The court previously heard police officers had explained the nature of the intelligence they had received when they visited Judge’s home.
Fiscal depute Felicity 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 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.
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 admitted 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 after psychological reports are carried out.