A teacher has pleaded guilty to sexually touching a teenage girl while she was a pupil at the school he worked in.

Craig Hill, 46, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity by a person in a position of trust while he was a teacher at Hall Park Academy in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire.

The defendant, of Mornington Crescent in Nuthall, Nottinghamshire, appeared in the dock at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday wearing a dark suit and admitted to sexually touching the teenager and encouraging her to do the same to him.

The girl, who is now an adult, came forward to police years after the incidents to report that “she felt she was groomed” by Hill during her time at the school, prosecution barrister Dawn Pritchard told the court.

Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said to the defendant: “These are serious offences despite their age and despite the circumstances of them.

“The fact I am adjourning sentence is no indication of what the likely sentence will be. These are serious matters.”

The judge granted Hill conditional bail and adjourned sentencing to November 1 to obtain a pre-sentence report .