An East Kilbride student downloaded child sex abuse videos and shared them with online pals.
Jack Mathewson, 23, of Colonsay, was put on the sex offenders’ register when he appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Friday.
He admitted downloading and distributing indecent photographs and videos.
Connor McIntyre, prosecuting, said police officers detained Mathewson at South Lanarkshire College in East Kilbride on February 5 last year.
They seized his phone which contained 55 photographs showing children being sexually abused and 272 explicit videos.
Nearly half of the videos were in the most depraved category.
Mr McIntyre told the court: “Analysis of the phone showed that the accused had downloaded the images between December 2023 and February 2025.
“He had distributed 21 videos to other Telegram and Snapchat users.”
Mathewson appeared in court with no previous convictions.
Sentence was deferred until September for background reports and a risk assessment.
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