Former St. Marguerite Catholic School in Spruce Grove teacher Brian Nickel (left) and lawyer Dino McLaughlin are seen leaving Stony Plain court house on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. (Sun Media/Perry Mah)

STONY PLAIN -- Disgraced teacher Brian Nickel was so shaky he could barely stand in front of Judge Al Nemirsky and apologize for his "immoral, unethical and disgusting actions" that included sex acts with a 14-year-old girl, making a secret video of his daughter's friend in the shower and keeping child porn on his computer.

In a barely audible voice, the 45-year-old former junior high sex-education and science instructor offered his "most profound apology" yesterday to his victims and their families, his own family and his employer, St. Marguerite Catholic School in Spruce Grove.

"I can't begin to imagine the anguish suffered at my hands," he said, adding he regretted that his wife, son and daughter had been "dragged into this madness."

Neither the victims' families nor his own were there to hear him.

The Edmonton man had pleaded guilty to several charges, including sexual interference, making child pornography and two counts of possessing child pornography in incidents that took place in the spring and summer of 2008.

Nickel admitted to having an affair with a 14-year-old student that included exchanging increasingly explicit text messages, instant messaging and sending each other sexual messages and videos.

They eventually graduated to kissing and fondling and by the end of the summer had performed oral sex on each other in an empty classroom at the school.

After he was arrested in early September, police found hundreds of pornographic photos of adolescent girls on his computer and PDA. They also found several pornographic videos, including one secretly taken of his daughter's best friend in the Nickels' shower during a sleepover.

They even found a video taken during a class. The camera had been planted under Nickel's desk and aimed at the students' crotches in front of him.

During sentencing arguments yesterday in a Stony Plain courtroom, Nickel's lawyer Dino McLaughlin tried to paint a picture of a religious, decent man who inexplicably descended into a four-month spree of increasingly bizarre and reckless behaviour.

He said his client had several "stressors" on him at the time, including a strained relationship with his wife and kids, trouble with depression, the sudden death of a close friend and a neurological condition that doctors said needed surgery, but later changed their minds and put him on several medications.

McLaughlin said Nickel began abusing some of his prescriptions and secretly drinking at night.

"He began acting in ways that seemed almost deliberately repulsive," McLaughlin said. Nickel's victimization of the girl, McLaughlin said, was "a delusion of some kind of a romantic relationship that allowed him to rationalize behaviour that was otherwise beyond rationalization."

McLaughlin said Nickel is so remorseful that since getting caught he's been admitted to psychiatric hospitals twice because he was suicidal.

But Crown prosecutor Craig Krieger didn't buy it. He depicted Nickel as a man with "an unnatural, obsessive interest in teenage girls" who began by searching out increasingly provocative and explicit images of underage kids on the Internet.

He graduated to taking his own secret images of girls he either knew or saw at school, Krieger said. He descended to the level of hiding a camera in his own bathroom to catch his daughter's best friend on video and kept copies on his laptop and portable device so he always had it nearby.

The sexual behaviour with the 14-year-old steadily escalated, too, Krieger said. He argued that Nickel had many opportunities to come to his senses and quit, but nothing stopped him until he was caught.

The Crown wants Nickel to get a six-year sentence, while the defence is asking for 30 months.

Nemirsky will decide Nickel's fate on November 3.

ANDREW.HANON@SUNMEDIA.CA