A 63-year-old man has admitted sharing indecent images of children.
Phillip Ferguson, of Kirkton Place in Elgin, was reported to police after sending the sick material to a horrified colleague in a WhatsApp message.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard the WhatsApp message contained one category A video – deemed the most severe when grading indecent images.
It contained a 29-second film of two young boys, estimated by police to be under the age of eight, carrying out indecent acts on a donkey.
A second video, which contained footage of children in a classroom and was classed as Category B, was also recovered.
Fiscal depute Felicity Merson told the court: “The colleague who received the message on December 1 was shocked and told the accused he ‘needed help.’
“The accused replied ‘Haha – have you just found that out lol.’”
The colleague continued to feel “uncomfortable” and eventually went to the police on March 17, 2018.
Yesterday, Ferguson pleaded guilty to possessing indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children between December 1 2017 and March 2018, and to showing the images to another on December 1 2017.
Sheriff Ian Wallace deferred sentencing until May 29 to obtain social work reports, but placed Ferguson on the sexual offenders’ register.
