An NHS radiographer who accessed the personal records of more than 200 female patients before pestering them for dates claimed working in the dark had made him feel lonely.
Andrew Stewart, 32, worked at hospitals in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire where he dealt with hundreds of patients.
He used his position to look up files of women he had been treating before hounding them with a string of messages on Facebook and WhatsApp in a desperate bid to get into relationships with them.
The married dad-of-one provided fake names including Andy Smith and Jamie Scott to protect his identity and called various women 'hot', 'gorgeous' and even complimented one on her 'nice boobs'.
He also sent photos of himself and in one message told a woman he was mature 'when it comes to pleasing women in bed.'
Stewart, of Fenwick, Ayrshire, had earlier appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted two charges of obtaining personal data of 32 named women and others without a clinical or medical reason to do so.
He also pled guilty to a further 16 charges of acting in a threatening and abusive manner to women he had contacted between March 2013 and August 2018.
Stewart denied getting any sexual gratification from contacting the women and claimed he was 'lonely'.
He gave evidence at a special hearing convened to decide whether his actions were sexually motivated.
He said: "The job I was doing was quite isolated, working in the dark so it could be quite a lonely place at times.
"It was a pattern of behaviour that I completely regret now and it was just stupidity.
"I felt lonely at times and I am completely ashamed of myself.
"The fact that I have caused all of this is something that I completely regret, I'm just sorry to everyone who has been affected by this.
"I was not getting any sexual gratification from the messages and they all came from when I had been taking a drink.
"I would never have carried anything out with any of the individuals , I betrayed my wife by doing this and that is what hurts the most.
"This was a pattern of behaviour which spiralled out of control and I am not proud of myself and have now taken myself away from that career. I owed it to the NHS to remove myself and I've only worked with males since.
"There was no sexual urges but I can see it coming across like that."
Sheriff Thomas Millar ruled that the shamed radiographer's offences were sexually motivated.
Stewart now faces being placed on the sex offenders' register when he is sentenced next month.
The court had previously heard how his crimes were uncovered when a woman he had been messaging recognised him at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock and reported it.
A massive probe was launched within the NHS leading to hundreds of patients receiving letters saying that their data had been breached.
It was discovered that Stewart, who also worked at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, had even offered to tell one female patient the results of her MRI scan before she had spoken to her consultant.
In total he had accessed around 220 patient files illegally.
