Colin Chisholm caught with indecent images of children
A specialist teacher for autistic children was caught with indecent images of children on his home computer in Edinburgh.
Colin Chisholm, 28, earlier pled guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to possessing the images and downloading them between 21 and 29 April 2011.
Chisholm, a first offender was sentenced to a three year community pay-back order.
He was also was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for the same period.
Chisholm was employed at St Cuthbert's RC Primary School, Edinburgh, in years one and three as a specialist teacher.
Fiscal depute, Dev Kapadia, told Sheriff Isabella McColl that when the police called at Chisholm's home with a search warrant he denied having any indecent images, but later admitted he had and co-operated fully.
Mr Kapadia said there were three moving images involving children aged between six and 12. One of the images featured two boys aged six, one a boy of 11 and the third, two girls aged 11 and 12.
The images were at the lowest end of the scale for indecent pictures. The fiscal said Chisholm himself had notified his employers of what had happened.
Defence solicitor, Mark Harrower, said his client was now unemployed.
He had resigned from his post as a teacher after being arrested.
Mr Harrower said Chisholm's career was now over and said social work reports said he was at low risk of re-offending.
He added that the images had only been in his client's possession for eight days and there was no evidence they had been distributed to other people.
The reports suggested that a sentence other than a custodial one could be considered.
The sheriff also said she would be reporting the case to Scottish ministers for Chisholm to be placed on a list of people not suitable to work with children.