A DISGRACED teacher from a Trowbridge school has been banned from ever teaching again after admitting sexually assaulting a pupil at a summer camp.

Nicholas Bartlett, who taught science at Clarendon Academy, admitted squeezing a girl’s bottom at a camp in July 2015.

He had also added her as a friend on Facebook and sent her three messages, a professional conduct panel of the National College for Teaching and Leadership in Coventry heard on March 9.

The girl also accused the teacher of rubbing the top of her thigh with a blanket covering their laps for a couple of minutes as they were sitting around a campfire with other pupils.

Bartlett, 28, denied this but the panel considered that, on the balance of probabilities, the event was more likely than not to have occurred.

The teacher also admitted hugging the girl and drinking alcohol with pupils aged 11 and 12 when he was responsible for them.

In the report, published today, it states that Bartlett approached the girl at school and said “you’re not going to tell anyone are you?”

The panel also heard that his behaviour has had a traumatic impact on the girl as she still feels guilty that she did not control the situation at the time and remains ‘genuinely distressed’ about it.

Bartlett began working as a supply teacher at the school on January 7, 2013, and became a permanent science teacher on January 27, 2014.

From June 29, 2015, to July 3, 2015, he accompanied some pupils on a school summer camp, when the sexual assault took place.

A few months after the camp, the girl discussed the events with her friend.

The friend then told her mum, who reported it to the school on November 19, 2015. Bartlett was suspended from the school on November 20.

A police investigation ensued but did not result in a criminal prosecution as the victim declined to make a formal complaint. The school then conducted its own investigation and Bartlett resigned.

Bartlett requested for the hearing to be held in private, but this was rejected.

The pupil gave evidence at the hearing but Bartlett was not present.

The school's headteacher, Yvonne Jorden, has been approached for a comment.