A British soldier downloaded sick images and videos of babies and animals being sexually abused while living at an army barracks, a court heard.
Matthew Cabral, 35, pleaded guilty to downloading and distributing the graphic material and possessing extreme images of sexual activity between adults, dogs horses and a dolphin.
He also admitted failing to appear for two court dates, which delayed the case. Cabral, originally from Taunton, Somerset, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court via video link from prison earlier this week.
The court heard he was arrested after British Army intelligence received information that indecent images of children had been downloaded at an address on Kinloss Barracks, on the Moray Firth in Scotland.
Investigators who raided his accommodation found more than 800 images and 76 videos of child abuse on a mobile phone.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told Sheriff Ian Cruickshank that 16 accessible videos were of the most serious kind, involving boys and girls aged between six months and 15 years old.
The videos were downloaded between November 16, 2018 and January 15, 2022. Another 35 videos and 225 stills were also found which were inaccessible to the normal user.
Three accessible videos and three still images were retrieved and were of the two lesser categories of depravity, but 603 images and 20 videos had been deleted.
The forensic examination of the phone revealed he had distributed 23 videos via WhatsApp group chats and that he had 12 videos lasting 15 minutes and 29 seconds of bestiality.
Sentencing was deferred until March 24 for a background report and restriction of liberty order assessment and he was again remanded in custody.
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