School worker who downloaded child abuse images blames attention disorder

Moray Nicholson: The 22-year-old will be sentenced later this month.Deadline

A classroom assistant who downloaded child abuse images has blamed his behaviour on an attention disorder.

Moray Kent Nicholson claimed he was not a paedophile and said he only collected the images for the "rush of doing something prohibited".

Last month, the 22-year-old admitted being involved in creating indecent images of children.

He was due to be sentenced on Wednesday but it was deferred for the sheriff to consider medical reports.

Nicholson worked at Corstorphine Primary School in Edinburgh on a six-week placement at the same time he was downloading the images.

The council said he never had any "unsupervised access" to children at the school.

Nicholson earlier admitted to taking or permitting to be taken or making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children at the family home in Murrayfield, between July 24 and October 13, 2010.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wenesday, his defence agent Gavin Anderson told Sheriff Elizabeth Jarvie his Nicholson did not pose a threat to children.

He said: "This is a case of a man from a good family. Mr Nicholson poses no threat to children. His actions were the result of his suffering ADHD [Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder]. They were done for the rush of doing something prohibited rather than sexual gratification. He knows he shouldn't have done it."

Nicholson’s mother, Anne Kent, 51, worked at the school. He passed a disclosure check and started a placement helping with the children.

The City of Edinburgh Council said Nicholson’s placement ended when a police investigation started.

Mike Rosendale, head of schools at the city council, said: "Mr Nicholson participated in a work placement at Corstorphine Primary School for six weeks in 2010, although he did not have unsupervised access to pupils.

"We are aware of these very serious charges and would like to emphasise that they do not relate to his work placement. All necessary disclosure checks were carried out before his placement commenced."

Sentencing on Nicholson was deferred until later this month.

People who read this story also read