A primary school teacher will be sentenced today after being found guilty of sexually abusing three boy pupils over a ten-year period.

Peter Shotton, 55, denied abusing the three boys while he was a maths teacher at Bewbush Community Primary School in Crawley between 1995 and 2005.

But following a nine-day trial in February, he was convicted of 10 counts of sexual assault on a child under 13, causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and indecency with a child.

Hove Crown Court heard one of the boys revealed the abuse to a member of his family in 2005 and confided there was a particular teacher he did not like.

When he was interviewed by police, Shotton said he only knew the boy vaguely and he had been sent to him on one occasion when he had been naughty.

Shotton, of The Twitten, Albourne, near Hurstpierpoint, said he was shocked by the allegations and denied being alone with the boy during lunchtimes.

After an article about the teacher appeared in a local newspaper, two other victims came forward separately and independently to report similar allegations of abuse.

Shotton was found not guilty of one count of indecency with a child, and the jury could not reach verdicts on a further six counts of indecency with a child.

Before remanding him in custody, Judge Anthony Niblett heard that Shotton would be placed on the Sex Offenders' Register and "almost certainly" banned from working with children.