A former cleaner at Ampleforth College supplied drugs to its sixth-form pupils, a court heard.

Steve Kitching, 28, of Storey Close, Helmsley, pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis and claimed the school near Helmsley had a drugs problem.

Magistrates at Pickering sent Kitching for sentence to York Crown Court on June 25 because of the seriousness of the offences.

Dawn Birkett, prosecuting said that rumours had got around the leading Catholic college that Kitching could supply drugs if he was asked.

He had sold £10 and £20 worth a time, adding a further £5 on to the cost 'for his trouble' she said.

"This is not a small-scale supply," she told the court. "He was supplying the drugs to school-age children, which is the most aggravating feature of the case."

Kitching admitted supplying cannabis resin and herbal cannabis between November 1998 and January this year to one pupil, and supplying it to others in January and February this year.

Kitching's solicitor Sean Grainger said he had been approached by the sixth-formers asking for the drugs for their own recreational use.

"He stupidly agreed. They gave him a list and through his contacts obtained them," said Mr Grainger.

He said Kitching had told him the college had a drugs problem and he was being pestered by the pupils. "He thought he was helping the sixth-formers.

"He made little out of them. He was approached by the pupils - he wasn't going round the school supplying them.

As a result of the offences Kitching had lost his job, his wife had left home and he was now losing his home and having to return to live with his parents in Ampleforth.

Kitching was granted conditional bail.

A further charge of offering to supply amphetamine was withdrawn after Kitching pleaded not guilty.

The magistrate ruled that the students should not be identified because they were all under 17.

see COMMENT 'Stamp out drugs'

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