A former West Sussex teacher has been convicted of child sex offences and sharing personal data of some pupils.
Nick Baldock, 46, formerly of Lancing College, was charged with sexual assault after indecently touching a teenager in July, 2022. The boy was a college pupil at the time.
Baldock contacted the victim after the incident, under the guise of apologising, but made inappropriate sexual comments about younger boys.
He was arrested and a number of digital devices were seized.
These were found to contain several indecent images of children, including one of the most serious Category A images. None of these were of current or former pupils at Lancing College.
Messages that Baldock had with other users on the Telegram messaging app also indicated a sexual interest in boys aged between 13 and 17.
The investigation showed that Baldock was found to have sent some non-indecent pictures of boys to other like-minded individuals, some of which had been downloaded from the school database.
He was subsequently charged with sexual assault and two counts of publishing an obscene article, as well as three counts of knowingly disclosing personal data without consent relating to six victims who were pupils at the college.
He was also charged with three counts of making an indecent photograph of a child. These images did not to relate children at the school.
The offences took place between August, 2021, and December, 2022.
At Crawley Magistrates’ Court on Friday (30 August), Baldock pleaded guilty to all charges.
He was released on conditional court bail and was made subject to notification to the Sex Offenders Register, prior to sentencing at a court to be confirmed on 27 September.
Detective Sergeant Paul Hitchcock of Sussex Police’s OCAT (Online Child Abuse Team) said:
“Nick Baldock betrayed the trust of all of his victims, their families and the entire school community, using his position to pursue his disturbing sexual interest in young boys.
“I would like to thank the victim who reported the sexual assault to the school, which allowed us to discover the wider scale of Baldock’s offending, as well as Lancing College for their support of the investigation.
“We will now look ahead to sentencing towards the end of this month.”
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