A teacher at an exclusive boarding school who sexually assaulted a student and boasted about seeing pupils in their underwear has been spared jail.

Nick Baldock touched a student on the bottom and shared pupils' contact details with other paedophiles while working at Lancing College for five years.

Baldock, 46, told other paedophiles he wanted to see his students in sexually explicit videos similar to ones shared with him in a WhatsApp group chat.

A sentencing hearing at Hove Crown Court heard the history teacher told the group chat “every day is agony” about his position at the school and boasted about seeing students in their underwear.

The 46-year-old also had indecent images of children, not from the school, and shared non-indecent images of students at the college, while making sexualised comments about them.

He also shared their Snapchat details with a man on WhatsApp, inviting him to add them and communicate with them, the court heard.

Sentencing him on Thursday, Judge David Rennie said: “Parents have ultimate responsibility for loving their children and keeping them safe from harm.

“Teachers have a similar burden of responsibility.

Nick BaldockNick Baldock (Image: Sussex News and Pictures)

“You shattered that trust as you placed your own sexual gratification over that.

“You are or should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself.”

Baldock, who previously pleaded guilty to nine different offences, clutched rosary beads and muttered to himself as the court heard he had touched a pupil on the bottom while taking a group photo with them at an event in July 2022.

Emily Thornton, prosecuting, said: "While the photograph was being taken, he reached down and grabbed his bottom from behind.

"The shocked and confused boy pretended it hadn't happened."

As they walked back into the event, Baldock approached him and grabbed on the bottom a second time.

The victim then plucked up the courage to contact Sussex Police, who later found two phones filled with indecent images of children and online chats with like-minded men.

While none of the indecent images were of Baldock’s pupils, the teacher also shared non-indecent images of Lancing College students with other paedophiles.

Defending Baldock, barrister John Hunter said he was a “troubled soul” who devoted himself to his job and had no life outside of school.

He said he was of genuine remorse and was undergoing counselling to “deal with the demons within”.

At an earlier hearing Baldock, who previously lived at the college, pleaded guilty to sexual assault, two counts of publishing an obscene article, three counts of knowingly disclosing personal data without consent and three counts of making indecent images of children.

He was supported by his parents and aunt and uncle in court as he was handed a 12-month suspended sentence and a harm prevention order for eight years.

Judge Rennie added: “You are drawn to images of children being sexually abused; these are not victimless crimes, you are watching young people being traumatised and they must try and cope the rest of their lives, those images will always be out there.

“One referee refers to you holding a deep religious faith, what a strange way to show it.”

Sussex Police Detective Sergeant Paul Hitchcock, of the force's 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."