A voyeur tried to secretly film under the skirts of female students on the Inverness campus where he was studying.
Iain Grant, who was a University of the Highlands and Islands computer science student at the time, also used night vision to video record local children.
Grant appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court where he admitted a charge of breach of the peace, concerning videos that were made between March 2002 and February 2019.
He also pled guilty to possessing indecent images of children.
The 46-year-old’s perverse and disturbing interests were exposed by police who raided his mother and stepfather’s home in Muir of Ord, where he lived with the couple.
Officers discovered videos that revealed the voyeur had followed a woman on foot, recording her movements without the female’s knowledge.
‘Violated’ and ‘alarmed’
She appeared in 21 videos, recorded on separate occasions, during train journeys between Muir of Ord and Inverness.
On one occasion, the video showed that Grant had filmed the woman as she walked across the station concourse in the Highland capital and boarded a train.
When she was identified and told about Grant’s actions, the woman revealed to police that she felt “violated” and “quite alarmed”.
Grant was also caught with hundreds of indecent images of children on devices that were confiscated from the property during the police search.
‘Files of a voyeuristic nature’
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair said Grant’s crimes were uncovered by police after they acted on intelligence.
Officers executed a search warrant at the Muir of Ord address.
When they arrived at the property, Grant told them: “I know what you are looking for. It’s me you are looking for”.
Officers seized evidence from Grant’s home, including videotapes and electronic devices.
“Some [videos] were recorded in night vision at night,” Mrs Gair said.
The court heard that a collection of “71 video files of a voyeuristic nature” were found on devices taken into evidence.
They showed women wearing skirts and tights and in one example, dark leggings.
Many of the clips were captured on train trips between Muir of Ord and Inverness.
Some of Grant’s unsavoury video work was saved using the titles “Spyphoto” or “Spyvideo”, the court was told.
He tried to make ‘upskirt’ videos
Other videos were taken on the Inverness campus of the University of the Highlands and Islands, where Grant was studying computer science.
“In these videos, the camera is activated above the desk and it is then positioned underneath the desk in what appears to be an effort to film the legs, genital area and effectively ‘upskirt’ the female student seated at the opposite side of the desk from the accused,” Mrs Gair explained.
Sheriff Sara Matheson also heard that forensic analysis of devices seized at Grant’s home uncovered 631 indecent images of children.
They included 239 belonging to Category A, the most serious kind, 132 Category B images and 260 Category C.
Sheriff Matheson deferred the sentencing of Grant, of Highfield, Muir of Ord, for the production of reports.
But in the meantime, she placed him on the sex offenders register with immediate effect for a period of time that will be decided when the case calls in court next year.