Church Worker Found With Thousands Of Child Porn Pictures On Computer

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 he was a youth leader at two Edinburgh churches and in his part-time role as a school music teacher.

He was caught when police searched his home and seized his computer after a tip-off in January.

Investigators found the laptop contained more than 4000 images of children being abused.

Sutherland later claimed he had been researching the way children are portrayed in society.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday, he admitted having the images at his home between March 2004 and January 2008.

When questioned by police, he admitted getting “hooked” on sexual images of children, almost all of girls, 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”.

Sutherland, of Leith, Edinburgh, has been placed on the sex offenders’ register and will be sentenced next month.