A supply teacher who taught a schoolboy a racist, sexual rhyme has defended his methods as “saucy”.

James Hersey, from Hove, has been reprimanded by the General Teaching Council over the incident at a Sussex secondary school.

The 68-year-old admits while covering a lesson at Oriel High School in Crawley he told a 16-year-old student a ditty to help him remember the coding system for electronic resistors.

The verse - “black boys rape our young girls but virgins go without” – represents the first letters of each of the colours in the system.

Mr Hersey denies he is a racist and said he considered the rhyme only as provocative as a “saucy” seaside postcard.

He said: “I’m not a racist. In fact I spend more time with the ethnic minorities than anyone else, because they’re the ones who need most help.

“I was taught this rhyme at Brighton Polytechnic and many people of my generation also use it as a helpful way of remembering the system.

“It’s what I would call naughty and saucy. It’s like a seaside postcard from Brighton.

“This was a response to a question from a pupil about what I learned at school. I was not talking to the whole class.

“The response is completely over the top.”

For full report see today's Argus.