A former Moray Council youth worker who was asked to babysit children left the youngsters traumatised after subjecting them to a campaign of abuse.
Daniel Edwards locked a young boy in a toilet and shouted “directly in the face” of a primary school age girl when he lost his temper.
The 36-year-old – who also helped run a now-defunct youth music festival in Lossiemouth – was looking after the children at a house in Keith.
Elgin Sheriff Court heard yesterday that the boy involved had been left too scared to enter the bathroom Edwards locked him in.
He was spared jail but ordered to carry out 220 hours of community service.
The incidents happened on August 4 and Edwards was later found guilty of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause the young girl fear and alarm.
The court heard that he punished the boy by locking him in a downstairs toilet “for a period of time”.
Fiscal Kevin Corrins said Edwards’s actions left both children “distressed”.
He said social workers had spoken to the youngsters to establish how the ordeal had affected them.
Mr Corrins added: “The children were particularly upset by the incident, the youngest child has now effectively refused to use the downstairs bathroom.
“He simply won’t go in it anymore.”
Edwards’s agent, solicitor Stephen Carty, said his client had looked after the youngsters before without any trouble.
Mr Carty said: “There is no suggestion that anything untoward happened at all when he was looking after them until this.
“On this particular day, matters took a turn for the worse.
“The children later complained about what happened, and that brought an end to the accused babysitting them.”
But the lawyer stressed that his client had no previous convictions, and appealed to Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov to spare him prison.
The sheriff instead ordered Edwards to perform 220 hours of community service over the next nine months.
And she placed him under the supervision of social workers for the following 15 months.
Edwards lived at Keith at the time of the offence, but yesterday his address was given as 9 Clergy Street, Macduff.
Last night, Moray Council confirmed he no longer worked for the local authority.
Edwards was one of the main organisers of the Wall of Rock music festival in Lossiemouth.
It was launched in 2010, but was called off last year because of “the weather and a bizarre cocktail of unforeseen circumstances”.
Last month, the management committee announced the decision to axe the festival for good.
Members said the team behind the event “had too much on their plates” to continue its running.
Edwards, who also oversaw a similar music event in Buckie, was credited as being a key member of the organising group.
