East Lothian care home nurse facing jail after asking autistic child to send him sexual videos

David Marsh had downloaded the shocking material depicting both male and female children from apps including Snapchat, WhatsApp and Kik messenger over a six year period.

Marsh, 60, was also found in possession of several sexualised videos he had received from a vulnerable 12-year-old autistic child after making contact with her over the internet.

The care home nurse, from Dunbar, East Lothian, admitted accessing the depraved material during a police interview but denied to officers to having a sexual interest in children.

Marsh pleaded guilty to two offences involving child abuse committed between 2018 and 2024 when he appeared in the dock at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday.

David Marsh outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court | Alexander Lawrie

Prosecutor Matthew Miller told the court police raided Marsh’s home after receiving intelligence that a Snapchat account accessing the illicit material had been traced to the property in June last year.

The officers were allowed entry by a relative and Marsh was said to have arrived home a short time later at around 8am on August 6 last year.

Mr Miller said “a number of mobile phones and devices were seized” during the raid and were later found to hold indecent images of children on them.

The court was told four mobiles and an electronic tablet contained a total of 2448 images and videos with hundreds rated at Category A - the worst end of the spectrum.

The fiscal depute said the total run time of the videos was more than four hours and the material involved the sexual abuse of children aged between two and 15-years-old.

Mr Miller told the court officers also discovered Snapchat logs detailing the sexual contact Marsh had with a 12-year-old child who was described as being “vulnerable” and suffering from autism. Marsh was subsequently found to be in possession of videos of the child engaging in solo sexual activity that she had sent him but he denied sending images of himself back to the victim.

The court heard Marsh is a father of two and is employed as a nurse practitioner at a residential care home. Defence agent Steven Donald said he would reserve his mitigation to the sentencing hearing.

Sheriff Fergus Thomson agreed to release Marsh on bail and placed him on the sex offenders register on an interim basis. The sheriff also said Marsh’s name will be passed on to Scottish Ministers for inclusion on the list of those banned from working with children and vulnerable adults in the future.

Marsh pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of children at his home between October 7, 2018 and October 6 last year. He also admitted to intentionally causing a child, who had not attained the age of 13, to participate in sexual activity and did request images of her and send them to him between January 3 and October 28, 2021.