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	Youth Worker Had Child Porn on Computer Edinburgh Evening News August 19, 2008 http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/breaking-news/Youth-worker-had-child-porn.4404601.jp A CHURCH youth worker and school music teacher has admitted having thousands of pictures of child pornography on his home computer. Jamieson Sutherland, 40, worked with children as young as four while a youth worker at two Edinburgh churches and in his part-time role as a school music teacher. Sutherland, who is also a professional choir singer, was caught when police searched his home and seized his computer after a tip-off in January. Investigators found the laptop contained more than 4,000 images of children being abused, four of which showed the most severe level of abuse. Sutherland later claimed he had been researching the way children are portrayed in society. At Edinburgh Sheriff Court today, he admitted allowing indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children to be taken or made at his home between March 2004 and January 2008. Days after his computer was seized, Sutherland confessed to the ministers at St John's church in Princes Street and St Mary's church in the city where he worked that he was being investigated and was immediately fired. When questioned by police, he admitted getting "hooked" on sexual images of children, almost all of girls, on his home computer. He said he had started looking at child modelling sites then progressed to harder images, but denied being sexually aroused by the images. The court was told he had contacted a psychiatrist in a bid to cure his "unhealthy fascination". Fiscal depute Siobhan Monks said: "He said he had been doing research and because of this had accessed these sites showing indecent images of children. "He claimed he had an interest in the way children were portrayed in society and the abuse they suffered and that was what he was researching. Ms Monks said the images were found in an area of the hard drive which he could not access after they were first viewed. "Its quite an unusual type of offending because he has looked at websites and moved on to look at others," she said. Sutherland, of Dalgety Avenue, Edinburgh, will be sentenced in six weeks time after psychological and background reports. Sheriff Elizabeth Jarvie said she wanted to know the ages of the children in the pictures and the likely distress they were shown to be suffering before passing sentence. Sutherland, who has been placed on the sex offenders' register, was allowed to remain on bail on the condition he stays away from children under 16.
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