Primary school assistant placed on sex offenders register

A 38-YEAR-OLD support assistant at an Edinburgh primary school has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for possessing indecent images of young girls on his laptop.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Stock imageEdinburgh Sheriff Court. Stock image
Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Stock image

Martin Geddes will also be under supervision for three years after pleading guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to being in possession of the images between September 28, 2014, and March 9, 2016.

He was employed as a support assistant at Broughton Primary School by Edinburgh City Council.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It’s understood there is no connection between the offences and the work he carried out at the school.

Geddes no longer works for Broughton Primary or the city council.

The case had been continued until Wednesday for reports.

Fiscal Depute Gerard Drugan had told Sheriff Norman McFadyen that, following information, police had obtained a search warrant and went to Geddes’ home, taking possession of a laptop.

Geddes, he said, denied seeing any indecent images of children and claimed that he was not responsible for them.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Fiscal said there were more than 1000 images of varying levels of indecency.

There were also 17 films of varying levels of indecency.

Sheriff McFadyen continued the case for the reports and for details of what had been shown, the sex of the children and the age range.

When the Sheriff asked for the details, he was told by Fiscal Depute Iain Batho that he just had general information.

The images, he said, were all of girls.

Defence solicitor Peter Winning said his client had no previous convictions and the report suggested alternatives to custody.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Sheriff McFadyen told Geddes that such cases were always serious but, given the Social Work report and circumstances of the case, it seemed clear that any sentence would be a short one.

“I have come to the conclusion, with a little hesitation, that a Community Payback Order with stringent conditions would be better than a short period of imprisonment,” he said.

He placed Geddes on the Sex Offenders Register under supervision for three years. Geddes will also attend the “Moving Forward Making Changes” programme for three years and carry out 240 hours of unpaid work within 12 months. The laptop was confiscated.

DOWNLOAD THE EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS APP ON ITUNES OR GOOGLE PLAY