A mother reported her own son after she discovered child porn on his computer, a court was told.
David Mackenzie, who now lives in Edinburgh, was living in Kiltarlity, near Inverness in 2012 when he downloaded the indecent images.
But the shocking discovery was not made by his parent until some time later when she went looking for a film to watch, fiscal Roderick Urquhart told Inverness Sheriff Court.
Mr Urquhart said: “His mother was at home with a friend and Mackenzie was not there at the time. While looking for a film, she saw images containing indecent images of young naked female children in explicit poses.
“His mother had them downloaded to a USB stick and took them to the police and reported her son. There were 13 in total, most of which were at the lower end of the obscenity scale.
“When the computer was examined, it was discovered that they had been sent to him via Skype in February, 2012, so he was 18 at the time of the commission of the offence.
“Examination revealed he sent them on to another Skye user on February 21 and then sent others on to another person on February 26.
“He was arrested and when interviewed by police, he told officers that he could not remember distributing them.”
Mackenzie, now aged 22 and of 1a Peebles Road, Walkerburn, Edinburgh admitted possessing the images between February 20, 2012 and April 4, 2012 and distributing images on February 21, 2012 and February 26, 2012.
Sentence was deferred on the first offender until January 19 for the preparation of a background report.
Sheriff David Sutherland also placed Mackenzie on the sex offender’s register.