By Kevin Duguid
A PRIMARY school teacher has admitted downloading videos of children being sexually abused by adults.
Colin Chisholm was teaching P1 to P3 classes when he was caught with images of children as young as six, it was heard at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
And when the 28-year-old was quizzed by police about his crimes, he admitted he was “sexually attracted” to children.
Chisholm, from Edinburgh, admitted being in possession of indecent images of children.
The teacher at St Cuthbert’s RC school also pleaded guilty to making indecent photographs of children.
The offences took place between April 21 and 29 this year, less than a year after he took up his post.
Chisholm denied an allegation that he distributed the videos to others, a claim that was accepted by the Crown.
Fiscal depute Dev Kapadia said three videos were found on Chisholm’s computer at his Edinburgh flat.
One of the videos was 50 seconds long, while another was just over five minutes long, the court heard.
The children were deemed to be between the ages of six and 12.
One video contained footage of sexual activity between children and adults said Mr Kapadia.
He added: “The accused at the time was employed as a primary school teacher. He started working at the school in August 2010. He was working as a specialist teacher, teaching children in primaries one to three.”
Then, just months after he took up his post, police received information that people were accessing the internet at Chisholm’s home. Officers were told that there was a possibly he was involved in file sharing and that the images involved child abuse, said the fiscal.
A search warrant was granted and they met Chisholm at his home at 1am to confront him about the allegations.
They also spoke to a flatmate who said he had no knowledge of Chisholm’s behaviour, the fiscal said.
“Chisholm admitted straight away admitted that he had downloaded indecent images of children,” said Mr Kapadia.
“He indicated that he was sexually attracted to children, but absolutely denied any involvement in physical matters.”
Mr Kapadia said there was a programme for shredding files on Chisholm’s computer, but he insisted the shredder was for disposing of school files.
“Chisholm provided an explanation to the police in that as a teacher he had information relating to his school, which required to be destroyed,” the fiscal added.
Sheriff Isabella McColl asked if Chisholm’s shredder claims were checked out by the police. But the fiscal said he did not think they were.
The sheriff deferred ordered Chisholm to register as a sex offender and deferred sentence until next month for background reports.
